Building New Foundations
by SirSaulty1995
Summary: "The time has come for some new f****** management." After an incident that left Zac for dead and heavily injured, he gets sent to another world. He receives the power he knew as the Gamer's power, but not what he expected it to be. The question is, what will he do now? RTS Gamer, Base/world building, Tech development, Anti-hero,Grey/dark OC, slight AU, Set in Albion. Rated M
1. Chapter 1: Setting up New Foundations

**So recently I've been browsing the internet and I've found this... two websites called Royalroadl and NoveleUpdates. There's a concept in noveleupdates that i quite like and that is kingdom building and modern knowledge in a fantasy setting, The best example i can give you is release that witch.**

 **There's also another fic done by an author in royalroadl called tonyorobsky and he's done a story that i quite like called "Building my Faction in another World" which is what this story is kind of based and inspired from, but it has been abandoned as he's gone quiet...like me as of recently. He's also done a Familair of Zero fic on that website called "Altered Tales"...which is sort of like a gary stu setting where the SI Saito decided to shit all over canon and assert himself as emperor in all of Halkeginina or something like that**

 **Another reason i did this fic is that i also took inspiration from another novel in NovelUpdates called Modern Weapons Cheat in Another World, where it does have mixed reviews but it does have some pretty dodgy narration and world building and translation at times, but it's the concept that really interested me.**

 **Now Fair warnings to you all, this is a Gamer fic that no many have seen anything like it before, if any of you have then i would like to know where. I can't promise that i will do great at this as i'm going in without a beta reasder as i can't be bothered to bother my main one with this, but i will do my best.**

 **I like to mix it with a bit of dark and gritty content like i do with most if not all of my fics, so it will be mostly AU instead of focusing on the usual canon aspect as what many people do with all Familiar of Zero fanfics. Expect, gore, strong language, possibly some sexual content later on (as it is a harem anime/novel so why the hell not?), dark and upsetting scenes for some (I know this kind of thing is not portrayed this way, but i'm making it AU for that purpose in order for it to be), Bashing on nobility (also to be expected, how can you not?) Strong but not OP protagonist. also, expect some game crossovers.**

 **I probably might have forgotten to mention some things, but let's just get on with the story and let you decided.**

* * *

 **Building New Foundations**

Ok… so recently I just discovered I have a… somewhat overpowered ability. You know… like a gamer's ability, a freaking reality bending gamer's ability. Awesome, right?... if that's what you are thinking, but mine had a… twist to it.

Despite being ripped away from my somewhat boring and monotonous life, not to mention torturous, shitty and all… considering what happened to me recently and those other times I had to suffer because of those bastard bullies. I can't help but feel like I don't really mind this setting all that much.

I couldn't tell if was fortunate or not, this chance is like 1 in a billion of it ever happening in your or anyone else's life, yet it happened with mine. The downside of it however, my ability appears to broken… or fucked up full of bugs and glitches with the system codes and commands to be more accurate. It also did not help with my apparent wounds and my appearance after I suffered from an incident with my high school bullies that involved fire and a lot of petrol later on through my letterbox as revenge for sending some of their friends and family to prison just because I was a witness to a brutal manslaughter/ attempted murder.

I was asleep upstairs in my own house and for some reason the fire alarm was disabled, either the batteries got taken out or it was broken. The last thing I woke up to was a room full of smoke and everything was burning around me, and then the ceiling collapsed on top of me…and then I woke up in a another place.

* * *

I woke up in the early morning of 8:30AM with the sunlight hitting my eyes. I winced at the sudden brightness as the light suddenly hit my eyes as if someone had opened the windows, as I turned over and opened my blurry eyes to see a bright blue transparent hologram window just floating in front of my view.

 _ **Welcome to the RTS Gamer expansion pack.**_

 _ **You have been specially selected to test out our newest content that we have recently added for our clients**_

 _ **With the RTS expansion, you can now play your life like an RTS game like Command & Conquer, Company of heroes, StarCraft, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War, Age of empires, Civilisation, Hearts of Iron for examples and more.**_

 _ **Unfortunately we are facing some technical difficulties that are in conflict with the compatibility issues with the RPG mechanics. Unfortunately we couldn't do much about your current state as we could only heal 75% of the damage done to your body and you may feel some negative effects such as dehydration, shock, minor difficulty with breathing, coughing, a sore throat and chemical imbalances.**_

 _ **We apologise for the inconvenience, but we ask of you to push on until we find a solution or you find something to cure yourself of your suffering.**_

I blinked at the hovering message, once or several times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating or the exhaustion was making me see things. "This is a joke, right?" As weird as this was, what with seeing a floating text box in front of my face. I couldn't help but wonder why I was in a comfortable bed in a… wait? This isn't my room.

I sat up from my bed and looked around to see a rather blank looking Spartan room with only the bare essentials for a rather Palin bedroom. White painted walls, white Egyptian cotton bed quilts, pillows and sheets. A modern looking plain wardrobe and a few set of drawers and an empty desk. There were no signs of entertainment like any gadgets or technology such as a computer, TV, games consoles or anything that I personally hold a lot of attachments to.

I got up from my comfortable bed that I admit it is actually more comfortable than my bed at home that is not this one. I stood up to see that I was still wearing a white pyjama shirt along with grey pyjama bottoms, the clothes that I wore to bed with.

Pondering in confusion as I remembered that this was not the room I fell asleep in. I looked around the room some more and decided to open up the wardrobe to see what's inside. When I did, there was the exact set of clothes that I wore from what I remember was only just yesterday, along with a separate copy of the same clothes and boots.

For some reason another text window popped up to notify what I was wearing right now.

 **Torso:**

 **[Pyjama Shirt– (D class item) – DUR (10/10]**

 **[Bandages – (C class item) – DUR (12/12]**

 **Legwear:**

 **Pyjama bottoms - (D class item) – DUR (10/10]**

 **Footwear:**

 **[None]**

 **Headwear:**

 **[Bandages – C class item – DUR (12/12**

 **Hands/arms:**

 **Bandages – C lass item – DUR (12/12)**

 **Accessories / Miscellaneous**

 **[None]**

Feeling quite spooked, I decided that I should head outside the room and possibly outside this house that I suddenly found myself in. 'Ok…this isn't weird.' I said trying to convince myself as I then stared in the wardrobe's mirror at the shock at the fact that my face, arms, hands and my upper torso was covered in bandages. It sort of reminded me of Joshua Graham from that one DLC in Fallout New Vegas. For a brief moment, I found that pretty cool, but immediately that feeling was squashed and replaced with cold silent anguish as I recalled back to what happened as to why I had those bandages and the fact that at times I sometimes feel as if I'm still on fire, but then the pain fades for a brief time before returning.

Leaving the negative thought aside, I was still puzzled as to who this house belonged to, I decided to quickly change into my clothes.

 **Torso:**

 **[White long sleeved button up shirt with sleeves rolled up] – (D class item) – DUR 10/10**

 **Legwear:**

 **[Dark blue Denim Jeans] - (D class item) – DUR (10/11]**

 **Footwear:**

 **[Combat boots] C class item [20/20]**

 **Headwear:**

 **[Bandages] – C class item – DUR (12/12]**

 **Hands/arms:**

 **[Bandages] – C lass item – DUR (12/12)**

 **Accessories / Miscellaneous**

 **[None]**

After I finished getting changed into my clothes, muttering to myself that I really did look and feel like Joshua Graham from Fallout NV, all I needed now was the SWAT ballistic vest armour, an M1911 colt .45 ACP pistol and a bible and the look would be complete. After all, that I immediately moved towards the door which to my surprise that I find that the door was a sliding door. Shrugging to myself, I reached towards the handle and slid it open as I peered out of the bedroom door and looked down the hallway. To my surprise…the hallway looked completely trashed, not to mention old and archaic. Compared to my bedroom, the hallway had a horrible draft coming through and the old wooden walls along with the timber frame were on the verge of falling apart.

As I stepped out of the room, I noticed that there was some noise coming from one of the rooms that was open. I tried being as quiet as I could, despite the fact that I was never that good with sneaking around.

 **You have learnt a new skill!**

 _ **Be one with the shadows**_

 **Sneak – level 1 (5/100EXP)**

 _ **Passively Increases your stealth by 10%**_

Not sure if this thing is being sarcastic or I've really achieved something great?

I stepped closer into what believed was thee kitchen, an old medieval/ Renaissance kitchen. Every part of the kitchen was all either rotten, falling apart or rusted overtime. I looked over the kitchen some more and decided that I probably just heard the draft of the wind coming through the open cracks of the house.

Feeling rather disturbed by this environment, I then started to move closer to the front door. "Right~…okay, I think I should get going now." I said in a rush as I did not wish to stay any longer and rushed out the front door.

As soon as I took one step out of the door, I came to a massive dilemma that I just discovered and a shocking fact I just found myself…I was not in the UK anymore.

The shocking truth was that I found myself in some sort of old poor medieval village with old English single story cruck houses. However, it looked as if it had been abandoned for years, so the buildings were a bit run down. The village itself looked as if it could house at least 100 people or more and there was a nearby forest as well as a few mountains directly to the south, but to the north he could see nothing but a clear blue sky and clouds that were really close to the ground on the horizon, now that he thought about it, the air was quite thinner and the air was colder as he felt the cold sting biting through his bandages. He then realised that he was the only one in this village, all alone.

Well, rundown and abandoned was a bit of an understatement. The village looked as if there had been signs of conflict, arrows embedded into the walls of every home as well as scratches and slash marks and signs of dried blood in the woodwork as well as the walls being smashed through and the roofs being caved in by rocks and something else as well as what appeared to be burn marks that was apparent that there had been a slaughter here once as there were a few skeletal corpses that had been left around the place. It seemed that nobody has ever returned to this village if anyone did survive the attack, and it looks like no one had even bothered to reclaim this village. Was it considered worthless? Or was it so isolated that it's been left ignored or forgotten for all this time? Who knows?

The village itself didn't seem very special… it may have just looked ordinary for all I know. There were just houses everywhere as well as the few farms that had been long since abandoned that all the crops there have all died and dried up and the cattle had all either escaped or were all slaughtered during the attack. There was only one house that looked important and it was the biggest house that was located on a hill on the outskirts of the outskirts of the village close to the coastline with the hill shielding it from the wind and overlooking the entire village with a sizeable garden as well it being two stories high and pretty spacious. The strangest thing about it was that only the master bedroom was well maintained and shielded from the cold while the resto f the house looked as if it could give way at any moment.

But there was something very wrong about all this. I was not where I was supposed to be, I was not at home, and instead I was in a strange place I did not recognise.

I heard and felt a presence approaching me from behind.

" _ **Ah, Master Crowshaw. I see you're awake…How're you feeling**_?" The voice spoke, as if it was happy to see me.

"Physically?…I feel fine…mentally?…confused, anxious, and almost angry…Where am I? This isn't home, or even close to it, isn't it?" I gulped nervously, not evening acknowledging the fact that there was somebody behind me and was to referring me as Master.

The voice then confirmed my suspicions. " _ **No…You're not. I suppose you've received the message from her?**_ "

"Who?" I narrowed my left eye in a questioning glance as I turned around to face the speaker and I had the surprise of my life as I saw who or what was speaking to me.

" _ **Gaia, the Goddess of the earth and my mistress. She's the one who created the power you now hold**_." the voice explained…coming out from this floating orb of blue light.

I stared incredulously at the strange anomaly, but I tried to keep my cool and keep the conversation going without freaking out, even though I was pretty calm about all this for some odd reason. "The Gamer's power?" he said in matter of fact. He has most definitely have heard of it, but it was just a fictional power…right?

The anomaly flickered and it bobbed up and down, as if to confirm my suspcions.

"I'm not entirely sure what's going on here…So I assume she's also responsible for sending me here?" I said sceptically

"Please _**don't get the wrong idea of her, but if she hadn't done what she did then you would've died in your bed as your house was being consumed in flames**_." The anomaly informed him.

"So that confirms how I got these, far as I know I actually did die and she just grabbed me just at the moment of death." I said while raising my arms to show off the bandages. "What happened really?"

" _ **It seemed there was one person who wanted vengeance against you for sending what he believes is his innocent brother to jail for testifying against him. He was the younger brother of the leader of the same gang of school bullies that used to torment you from middle school all the way to your last year of high school. You caught them in the middle of a relationship row gone wrong that sent the girlfriend of the leader to hospital in critical condition after the leader stabbed her in a fit unhinged madness and rage.**_

 _ **You caught him and his gang that were witnesses in the middle of the act and you immediately called the police that arrested him and the rest of them soon after the leader was caught trying to flee the country. Not soon after he was sent to life in prison after you provided an accurate witness statement according to the CCTV footage.**_

 _ **After he was sent to prison for his crimes along with the rest of them, his brother on the other hand in an act of denial and madness, he refused to believe that his brother was to blame. Instead, he blamed you for sending his brother to prison as he gathered up his brother's friends and several people who were friends with them and they all went to find you house. There, they poured petrol through your letterbox and set it alight."**_

The strange anomaly saw that the expression on my face through the bandages morphed into a visage of fury, my eyes burning with malice. "Did they really want me dead? To suffer like this?" my hands clenched together so tightly that they were shaking and to the point that my scars were screaming from the piercing pain, almost to the point that blood was almost being drawn and staining the white bandages red.

" _ **The brother did, yes. The others thought that there was nobody in as one person provided information that he knows where you work most of the time and he thought you were out. They never had the courage to kill an innocent."**_ It explained.

"But they had the courage to destroy and torment innocent lives even I was off on that day as I left my car at my parents' house. That makes them guilty and I won't accept anything less, so they must be punished for their crimes." He said whilst his hand moved to the bridge of his nose, shaking in restrained rage as his breath felt like hot blades grinding against his throat.

"I swear…If I ever see him or any of them again…I will pay them back the same way they tried to do to me…If there is a way back that is." he said finally calming down as logic and facts settled in. "Where are we?" I finally asked the million Pound/Dollar question.

" _ **Albion, a kingdom located in a place called Halkeginia."**_

I immediately frowned at that that as my brain was nagging at me as to they it sounded so familiar…bollocks. "Can't be...You're telling me we're in another world?"

" _ **You caught on so quickly? I'm impressed."**_ The Anomaly said as if to praise me for the obvious answer.

I couldn't help but sigh, no wanting to argue as I couldn't care anymore. "It's nothing to be so surprised about actually, it's just that I recognised the locations that belong to a certain fictional show/novel…I would include manga, but to be honest… there was not much to go on that. although i am still coming to terms about the whole another world thing." I shrugged. "And there is still the fact as to just who are you or what are you really?"

" _ **If you really want an accurate answer…Then I guess you could call an NPC…or a personal avatar/ Artificial intelligence construct summoned to serve my master/Mistress's needs. Whether they be advice for military, medical, construction, manufacturing, protecting, or personal purposes… I can do anything depending on the type of helpful information that you require of me, just like in an RTS game in the tutorial level."**_ The NPC avatar informed him.

I blinked and if I could, then I would sweat drop as I gathered all the information that was provided for me. "So does that mean…that I have some kind of RTS-Management construction ability? Like building a Command Centre and other constructions, gathering resources and recruiting different units or personnel... That's what it is, isn't it?" I said in total disbelief.

The anomaly flickered brightly and made positive *Dun!* noise.

"So if I were to guess…this building would be my command centre?…pretty shoddy for a command centre though." I admitted.

" **The house was intended for that purpose, yes. Though it was a work in progress not long ago, but due to certain bugs and viruses going on with the system, we had to leave the house design behind and focus on tackling this troublsome problem. I'm afraid you'll have to finish it yourself."**

"Why?" I asked the avatar seriously, wanting to know of it's or Gaia's intentions. "Why do all this for me? what makes me so special?"

" **Because you've suffered a lot, the system was unable to fully heal all of your burns and you are feeling the side effects of the burns and all of the smoke you have inhaled. You are very weak**." The Avatar said, very worried about my condition.

I felt kind of put off by it's sincerity, although i wasn't complaining that i got healed, well... mostly, it could've been a lot worse. "Honestly, I feel –" I was cut off when my eyes widened and I suddenly collapsed onto one knee as my chest was heaving, lost my breath and was convulsing into a coughing fit. The Avatar hovered over to me and it casted what looked like a circle on the field of grass around me and my breathing levelled out and my coughing ceased.

" **You need to rest… you've lost a lot of strength."** The Avatar insisted greatly after spotting spots of blood on the bandages where the mouth was.

"No…I…want to stay out here, just…let me sit on the steps." The Avatar reluctantly followed my request and I moved me to sit down on the steps by the front door to the entrance of the house/command centre. "I just… need some time to think… about all of this, leave me to my thoughtsall of light bobbed up and down in understanding. " **If you need me? Call for me… I'll be close by. Can I get you anything, master?** " it offered me.

"Water would be nice… my throat feels like hot charcoal right now." I murmured in a tired voice, ignoring the fact that it just called me master right now. The stress was easily getting to me.

* * *

After I relaxed a bit and calmed down I asked that avatar for some questions as to what was currently going on and where exactly on Albion were we located? I quickly came to terms that I was not on my world, no use dwelling on it. I've already understood and come to terms that my old life is now over. I have no intentions being depressed about it as my past life ended up into some sort of abduction into another world or I dead horrifically or some shit and then reincarnated into a harsh and brutal fantasy setting, at least I think it was like that in a way. Since I didn't do anything noteworthy, I have little to no reasons to remain attached to my old life. I was constantly harassed and beaten by bullies and my parents were cold hearted people, always caring more for their meaningless jobs more than their child. I still have the same body, despite the fact that it was burned in several places quite badly that I've pretty much become… I don't know what to feel right now.

The Avatar, whose name is unknown to me so I just call him that, answered my questions honestly that Albion is currently going through their civil war phase, with the royalist side facing heavy losses and edging nearer to their defeat. The Reconquista were gaining fast and heavy support all throughout Albion as well as a few small pockets of supporting factions secretly declaring their support in the main continent in all of the Brimiric kingdoms, even Germania despite how small that support was.

Albion was like an alternative form of Great Britain, excluding Ireland and without the whole floating island business happening with it. Roughly, it should be the same size, and distance as Britain in real life, or as I say in my original world and past life. Where we were located was in the far north of Albion, right on the edge of land available.

My little NPC/AI helper assured me that it was reasonably safe up here from all the action that was mainly happening down south in the central parts and the southern lands nearer the major cities, towns, ports and coastlines. Up north however, it was generally untouched despite the fact that the north was populated with savage hill tribes such as wild highland men, orcs, goblins and other creatures and tribes that dominate the north. There were only so few settlements that are actually owned by Albions nobility that were located in the north, but the large majority of Albion's nobles decided that the north was not worth the investment in it as they declared it as a poor region and the northern nobility were mostly made up of lesser nobles. The Avatar however then told me something interesting was that the nobility never really bothered to search properly through all the landscapes as it was actually pretty rich with minerals and natural resources, and the threat of the savage tribes were what really put them off from exploring, they just didn't want to go through the trouble. Not to mention that Albion was a floating pile of earth about 5000-10,000 feet above the ground or something like that, but I was reassured that Albion was was actually a lot larger than how it was portrayed, so i should'nt worry about digging too deep.

Besides, if i were dig too deep and find Wind-stone down there, i would know...but i was situated near the coast line direcly to the north of me, so i made a reminder to never dig northwards.

The two warring factions mainly focused on the south and central parts where all their major cities, towns and ports were located where they would focus all their navy strength into patrolling the air space in the direction of Germania, Tristian and Gallia. And none of them ever dared to challenge their naval might and air superiority. Therefore, any coastal defences up in the northern parts was considered pointless as Albion ruled the skies above the rest of the kingdoms and the one empire in Halkeginia.

As I listened, I couldn't help but ask one thing "So, why exactly was I…sent here? Is this some sort of request?"

" _ **Perhaps.**_ " The floating Ai said cryptically. " _ **The only thing I know of your purpose is that your fate is for you to decide what is right? What will you do now that you've been granted this power, knowing that the whole country is being plunged into chaos by Reconqusita and their rebellion mainly consisting of Albion's nobility... and the country will fall even further, as will the rest of Halkeginia soon if they're not stopped from their foolish campaign that is doomed to fail."**_

I didn't answer, but I was definitely thinking it through deeply. "How bad is it really? The situation out there with Albion's…no, all kingdoms in Halkeginia with thier nobility?" I said curiously.

" _ **The Aristocracy as you know are all mages with some of them, although rare, being commoners, but that happens only in Germania if they happen to obtain enough wealth, credit and influence. Halkeginia's Nobility will never allow for a commoner to obtain the social status of an aristocrat, for it is a sacred right for them as you are only permitted if you have magic.**_

 _ **It was made that way ever since the foundation of the four kingdoms that were built in their s so called founder Brimir's name. The Nobility is a failed practice that has been proven many times in history that it's Magocracy is a corrupted, abusive, arrogant, ignorant and intolerant ideology that has made a large majority of them spoilt, blind, and selfish and also a cowardly sort people.**_

 _ **Often they would bully the common man who have no magic and are considered lesser in social status just because they believe they have the right to step on them, all because of the laws and decrees of their beliefs and their faith in their holy founder that it is what gives them the special right. In the past, it first started off as an honourable position, to protect the innocent and to lead the common man out from the darkness, but a few millennia later and the nobility have fallen far from their grace. Every noble and royalty is a mage, with it it brings it's own problems to the world. Albion is going through a revolt lead by opportunistic, blindly ambitious and greedy nobles, Gallia's mad king is secretly plotting against everyone, Romalia's church of the Founder Brimir is more rotten and corrupted than what meets the eye, Germania is an empire led by brutes and bullies, Tristain is slowly becoming a nest of traitors and the Elves in the Sahara have been making a lot of moves as of late."**_ It explained with a serious and grim tone in its voice that made me frown and purse my lips together in slight apprehension.

"What are the chances of anyone from the south... coming here?" I asked it.

" _ **Not very high as of the moment, but I would be very cautious. The nobility is not the only thing out there to be wary o**_ f." It said in caution,

"Mm" I nodded as I looked over the village. As I thought to myself…I knew what to do.

I begin to think about my power…what it can do. "It's just like a game isn't it? so it should be simple, right?" I mused to myself.

"Stats!" I called out and a window suddenly appeared showing multiple text and numbers.

 **Stats:**

 **Name – Zachary Crowshaw**

 **Age - 22**

 **Titles - Big Boss (Passively increases leadership, loyalty and Discipline by 100%) level (max)**

 _ **Health points – 32/80HP**_

 _ **Mana Points – 1000/1000MP**_

 **Strength – 4**

 **Vitality – 8 (-50% Health)**

 **Dexterity – 15**

 **Intelligence – 30**

 **Wisdom – 23**

 **Luck – 7**

 **Status Effects - Second degree burns and Damaged lungs -40% health and Stamina**

 **Abilities:**

 **Gamer's Mind (Passive): Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. It also allows the user to operate with a peaceful state of mind under stressful situations or combat and grants the user Immunity to all psychological de-buffs and negative status effects. (Level: Max)**

 **Gamer's Body (Passive): Grants the user a body that allows him/her to live the real world like a game. Sleeping in a bed restores HP, MP and all (*)*^w)****I*^)*^ *…..Error!* (level max)**

 **Materialisation: (Active) Grants the user to summon weapons, ammunition, supplies, vehicles and various constructions into existence. The amount of weapons, supplies and ammunition you can summon is limitless. Resources to create buildings will cost either real currency of any place or natural resources that are required to build.**

 **Caution! You cannot summon when you are currently engaged in combat. You can only summon when you are not engaged with an enemy.**

"I suppose that's fair, in a sense." he said, trying to follow it as best as he could, even though he frowned at the error, cursing at the fact that it was inhibiting with his current health and healing regeneration process. he was also quite surprised at the title, he doesn't remember acquiring that title and he was not not here in this world that long. Although he did complete the game, Metal Gear Solid 5 a while ago, and he did max out his mother base as well as the FOBs. perhaps it was an achievement and the Game system rewarded me for it, or it was a bug.

 **Stronghold/Base Management (Passive and Active)** **– Your kingdom is your personal haven for you to mould. You have the ability to manage and build up your kingdom from afar by issuing special orders to either your specially selected subordinates or your summoned personnel.**

 **Summon Personnel -** **This summoning ability grants the ability to the user to summon creatures or in your case, Personnel. Personnel are loyal soldiers and subordinates that only answer to you. Your personnel are your very own privately owned army/servants that will never betray you. They are trained to do any roll from Combat, Engineering, Scientist, Stonemason, Blacksmith, Cook, Carpenter and all sorts. You can even summon loyal mages but they will not hold any noble statuses. And lastly, you can summon vehicles (Cavalry and beast riders, included) artillery ordnance and even ships.**

 **The amount of personnel and Arms you can summon is fixed at a certain level.**

 **The amount follows:**

 **Infantry Personnel – 250 (1 Company): You can assign any different roles to any of the summoned personnel judging by their current rankings or specialised rankings when training for a specific role in different combat/specialised logistical and other roles in your military force or base.**

 **Ordnance – 30**

 **Vehicles – 30**

 **Aircraft – 10**

 **Warships – 2**

 **When these arms and vehicles are summoned, the number of people needed to operate it will also be summoned and will not be included as an additional cost to infantry personnel. Drivers/pilots of said vehicles can join the infantry personnel if their chosen vehicle is either out of action or destroyed.**

 **Logistical personnel (Combat Engineer, Communication soldier, Intelligence soldier, Officer, Supply soldier, Medic, Research and development scientists etc.) is not included in the Infantry personnel summoning cap and are summoned separately. The amount of logistic personnel that can be summoned is the amount needed to maintain a division or military base.**

 **There is no limitation on summoning small arms and heavy arms that can be operated by 2 or 3 soldiers or more.**

"…Oh my..." I gaped at the spectacle of the sheer potential and ridiculousness of this ability that I have now.

 ***Ping!***

 **[Structure of infantrymen]**

 **When summoning a soldier; the age, sex, appearance and race can be chosen personally. If you do not wish to select anything or bother going through this tedious process, all those variables will be chosen at random for you. When a soldier is killed, they will not return until a month has passed if you choose to keep them saved in memory.**

 **Summons can be made by using either your mind or your voice. The menu screen is also optional if you wish to browse.**

 **Caution! Summons can only be made if the user has not entered battle. You can summon solders if the user has somehow managed to escape from battle and enemies have stopped their pursuit or unable to locate you at all. Summoned soldiers and weapons are possible to erase. And remember, whilst battling, weapons and soldiers cannot be summoned. So choose your time wisely when summoning.**

As much as I should be freaking out right now, but knowing that I had a passive that could nullify any negative psychological defects on me, there really is no point. A power to spawn in weapons, personnel, technology both past, present and possibly the future was right now in my hands. To be honest with myself, I was far too giddy to worry about the small and negative stuff, no matter how much it would eat at me normally after I was forcefully separated from my normal boring life filled with the usual BS. I just wanted to test out my new powers and I was going to test it out right now.

But unfortunately, the system had other ideas as it decided to damper my expectations.

 ***Ping!***

 **Note: Due to the primitive nature of this world's lack of understanding with science and technology, you can only summon arms, technology and other things at a restricted time period only. You can only summon/create tech from the (Terran/Earth time period) 1600s /17** **th** **century, specifically tech during and before 1650 until you level up certain skills, tech tree acquire specific upgrades, buildings, knowledge in different subjects and your summoned specialised personnel. Alternatively, you can purchase research blueprints to acquire them early or unlock them through exploration by finding collectable blueprints scattered across Halkeginia.**

 **Right now you are at Tier 1.**

"What!? Oh, come the fuck on!" I gaped at the unfairness of being placed in a fantasy world with the highest probability of there being mages that can shoot destructive fireballs at you, and I was given shitty single shot, muzzle loaded firearms and pointy metal objects that would do jack shit against a giant rock golem

Sighing heavily to myself I resigned to my fate and just went with it "Ok, so what can I summon from the mid-17th century?" I said as a new window popped up and there was a menu that was sort of like a catalogue of units, structures and weapons that I could currently summon. It turns out that…well… there was not a whole lot of choices available that I could summon for weaponry that were even remotely interesting to me, or even looked at all useful right now. From what I then figured out was that summoning personnel, structures, and weapons all cost some sort of energy and natural resources that were required, which was my logical guess. If so, then I can't overly rely on my own summoning power to make things personally if I want to exhaust myself constantly and I needed resources to create my base and to maintain said base.

So therefore, I looked around the village from where I sat on the highest hill where my command centre stood, from what it looked like, this building was like the village's elder's house or the mayor's house.

Surrounding the house were plenty of buildings that were falling apart, so it gave me a thought.

"So what else can I do with these… RTS powers?" I asked them

The NPC answered dutifully. _**"It is faster if you access the construction/training menu mentally, alternatively you can use stronghold Management ability where you can use your surroundings and closely observe and/or control the work of your subordinates and personal summons directly on the interactive world map. The user can also select or construct buildings and issue specific orders for the user's subordinates and summons to build, attack, occupy or demolish said building. The user can also upgrade certain buildings via specialised summons with the Example being, and Engineer/Construction Worker and convert them into specialised buildings like a blacksmith, armoury, tannery, and many more."**_

When I heard the explanation I decided to test it out, and almost instantly an interactive coffee table sized map of the local area suddenly appeared right in front me.

 **Use the magnifying glass to zoom in or out, highlighted in the top left corner. Alternatively you can double tap to zoom in on a specific point on the map**

"Ohhh~…it's just like Google Maps. " I said, chuckling at the irony and decided to test it out as i zoomed in on the village I was currently in and was showed what it looked like in a bird's eye view until I then saw another notification.

 **Legendary waypoint**

 **Ruins of North Edge**

 **Headquarters:** _ **Command Centre (Owned by you). Formerly the village elder's house before it was reconstructed.**_

 **Population:** _ **1 (Excluding the Avatar)**_ **  
Military strength:** _ **None**_

 **Stronghold/HQ status:** _ **Poor**_

 **Village Status:** _ **Razed, Abandoned, Forgotten**_

 **People's mood:** _ **There are none**_

'Well, that's all about to change soon.' were my exact thoughts as I looked towards the buildings and I inspected each of them as I looked at each house. I thought logically that I could dismantle the houses and acquire the wood directly into my resource inventory. So by using the system's weapon summoning, I summoned a sledgehammer.

"Master Crowshaw? What are you doing with the hammer?" The Avatar questioned me, curiosu as to what I was doing with a sledgehammer.

"If I want a base…I'm going to need lots of resources. Those houses are not being used right now and there is a sizable forest not far from here. Since the houses are mostly made of wood, it isn't really much of a problem if it can still be recycled. There is something else to help me with my work as the game assists my basic abilities and can be vastly improved in a short amount of time... I'm really thankful for that. The sheer amount of work I would have to do would have seriously dampened my motivation badly if I wasn't stronger before than I am now despite my endurance. With the game system and with the increased endurance, I can work for a longer period of time." I said determined before I set off,

" _ **You shouldn't overexert yourself, your body has not healed yet and you are still very weak."**_ The Avatar insisted. I frowned at the blunt statement but I knew It was right, my arms did kind of struggle from the weight…this is going to take a while.

" _ **Might I make a suggestion**_?" It helpfully chimed in. " _ **You can select the buildings you want to dismantle either by doing it up close to the building or by your personal map and it should do it by itself by selecting the dismantle command. Alternatively, you can just summon some workers to dismantle the buildings for you, but that s only if you have the command centre built, or in this case, finished, and you can only use the dismantle skill if it is within your territory."**_

I blinked at that as I would've slapped myself for forgetting that. "Of course…this is RTS logic, but I kind of wanted to raise my own stats and possibly relieve some…stress. Hope I don't end up killing myself over this" I sighed to myself as I felt as if I had no choice but to put some effort into this and start breaking stuff… I so needed that command centre up and running.

 **Mission list Updated:**

 **Building New Foundations**

 **Your first steps in building a nation, begins here.**

 **Establish your base in the north**

 **?**

 **?**

 **?**

 **Reward:**

 **1,000,000 XP**

 **100,000,000 money (Please choose your currency)**

* * *

 _ **Well?**_

 _ **I'm not sure what to think of it so i'm in need of feedback, ideas and constructive criticism. This is something new that i wanted to invest in and I've been trying to find the right approach to this concept that i'm experimenting with. Gamer fics i find are quite tedious and sometimes overly complicated material to work off.**_

 _ **Also, you are welcome to suggest ideas on the reviews or PM for base building. starting from Tier I which will be the very basic structures to Tier II which will be the starting point to civilisation. if anyone's played Sid Meirs CIV V/VI, Age of Empires, or...maybe hearts of Iron IV will understand where i'm going with this.**_

 _ **I would really like any ideas from base structures that gain, food and natural resources, military structures, industrial, administration, research and many more.**_

 _ **looking forward to hear from you all.**_

 _ **Oh, and no Toxicity in the comments, only constructive criticism and a little sarcasm will be allowed.**_


	2. Chapter 2 Building New Foundations

**AN:**

 ***Spit takes when reading the Followers, Hits and favs received for the story***

 **Oh...Ok?... so this has gained quite a fair bit of popularity since it first published, and i thought Familiar of Zero fanfics were kind of...well,dead-ish.**

 **Thanks for the reviews and for the helpful suggestions.**

 **There was a suggestion made by a certain PM and that was the Gamer Overmind by Tale Master Redux. Not the kind of fic I was looking for i'm afraid. He was super op, bordering godlike level right off the bat, and he has this obsession with multiple factions at once, i read the reviews and as expected he's got death threats or morbid reviews.**

 **the second suggestion was kind of interesting, but also disappointing.**

 **Tapped out adventures by zed019. Tihs fic is similar to the one i have now, but it's a oneshot.**

 **Anyways...**

 **This chapter I made was kind of... overdone.**

 **I admit that I am pretty bad with the whole info dump buisness, but it could've been a lot worse. Even if somebody suggested that i avoid them... but it's how I've always done them and how I felt to explain and express the story in some way. i am doing this fic solo, i just can't be bothered to contact my Beta reader to do this for me. it matters what you all think of it in the end.**

* * *

 **Building New Foundations**

I first started with breaking down all of the abandoned houses close to the command centre/ Headquarters, AKA my new house. After I broke all of them up into their key components by using the sledgehammer, I now had an abundance of wooden planks and timber in my inventory and all the right foundations into making my new house like nails for example. Although it took me a couple of hours of smashing through houses to at least acquire an adequate amount of the walls, wooden planks and timber needed to convert those resources that was necessary for my Command Centre, it was a pretty big house I was aiming for.

Fortunately, the inventory system negated the effects of rotten wood and rust that could be detrimental to the construction itself, so I was safe from being forced to cut down trees or destroying more houses at the moment. Unfortunately for me, all that hard labour left me feeling more fatigued, worn out and ragged than usual as my body was not the same as it used to be before the fire. Every so often I had to stop to take short breaks or stop entirely as my lungs started to act up on me, the skin from my arms to my chest was convulsing in pain and I suffered a few coughing fits that turned quote nasty on a few occasions until the floating ball of light had to come to my rescue on several occasions.

When I first started with manually dismantling those houses, it caught me by surprise by how the resource collecting mechanic worked. All it did was act like a wormhole that just vacuums all of the scattered collectable resources around that were highlighted in a bright blue hue as I focused on the said resources as soon as I gave the mental command to start collecting any nearby resources scattered on the floor.

Eventually, after spending the entire morning in collecting the entire damn wood that was needed to meet the requirements… I was finally ready to finish the command centre.

After recovering from earlier, the Avatar walked me through the steps of the building mechanic of building structures. After following every step, I gathered my focus on the building in front of me and I raised my hand towards it, reaching out towards the unknown energy that resided within me. Then with a silent command, I activated my ability. If I was exhausted when I finished gathering the materials by hand, then activating my ability felt like I was about to damn near kill myself from the strain. All my energy was suddenly sucked out of me within a couple of seconds as I drop to my knees, almost collapsing on the ground face first.

"...Guh!...wha-…the he-" I couldn't even form a proper sentence, nor a single word to express my surprise.

I watched on completely helpless as the house in front of me where all the old materials inside and out had started to glow faintly. Then, they seem to turn into thick, glowing particles. The glowing dust like particles gathered above the now empty and excavated piece of land where the house just suddenly disintegrated and then it started to convert itself slowly into a another form.

I couldn't see through it at all, but after a minute, the amount of dust started to lift, and a building was soon visible through the chaos. It looked like it was absorbing the dust particles, but I understood that it was the dust turning into the building where all the materials were being used without waste. All of this reminded me of the building mechanic in Supreme Commander/Total Annihilation/Planetary Annihilation games.

 **Construction complete!**

 **New construction options now available!**

 **New unit options now available!**

 **Achievement unlocked!**

 **Land owner**

 **Set up a command centre in unoccupied land**

 **Reward - 500EXP**

 **Side ops list updated!**

 **Build a Tier 1 base of at least five strucutres - 0/5 completed**

After all that, what I now found in front of me was a rather large heptagonal Japanese styled house with 2 floors where the first floor was a little narrower than the ground floor. At the front of the house, there is an ornate double door entrance with a pagoda styled roof above it. Walking around the building, I found another set of double doors at the back that leads into a basement, more discreet, like a technical entrance. As I was inspecting everything about the house, I couldn't help but notice that all of the windows had no glass in them, they were only wooden shutters. At that time after all the close inspection, I suddenly had a surge of implemented knowledge kicking in my mind.

The front entrance is the regular entrance. On the ground floor there is a particular room where all of the summoned personnel are brought in, like a reception area. This particular room I guess you could call it the Recruitment room. In RTS gaming terms, this room would be where the recruited and trained units just pop out of the building in droves.

Aside from that fact, I quickly discovered that I had suddenly hit a moral boundary that quickly caught up to me sooner than expected. It turned out that this power had quite the dark mechanic in terms of human resources. There were two methods of summoning as it turned out, one that are created out of convenience and the other were the summoning of real people in this world with nothing more to lose. Not only that, but there were key differences between them both "Hm? What's the difference between them?" I thought to myself when I discovered that part of the summoning mechanic.

 **Constructed Human** – _You can summon your chosen personnel via a special construction method of the materialisation of matter. They are technically genetically produced humans modified to be the perfect human. This method is more costly however to train and produce for the user and for the facility at where they are trained. Their loyalty and discipline on the other hand is unquestionable and the results in the skills they specialise in are satisfactory, even outstanding depending on the quality selected. Their behaviour around their master however, they are found to be very caring, protective and supportive for their master very much…almost too much._

 **Summoned Human** **–** Summoned _Humans that already exist in this world can be summoned regardless of race, sex, social status and culture that are brought here in front of you to serve you as their master where all their ages will vary between 15 - 45 years of age depending if they are physically capable. These people are ones who have nothing else to lose, but they wish to live on and wish for new opportunities. Thus when summoned, they volunteered their lives to you in order to have a better life under you other than the ones that failed them and suffered greatly from as they struggled and almost lost their will to live in their previous life. Their skills will vary, but most of them will be ranked as below average and quite poor unless you invest the time and money into training them. Their loyalty however will be unquestionable, but the results may vary as well as their behaviour. Their discipline is what is expected of a recruit however, but they will always put in their best effort for their master._

My eye's noticeably widened in surprise and then in apprehension and then disbelief. I should've expected something like this would happen. This sounded almost like slavery or the concept of familiars in a way, but the summoned humans volunteered themselves to serve me was what it said...I do not know what to think of that, but it seems like that for my survival I have little choice but to go with it. Well, technically they have nothing else to live for…same as me. Then again, are the nobles any different here than to slave masters? Louise certainly acted like one to Saito... but he was more treated like an animal.

On the ground floor of the house, there are several rooms for the… servants/staff members. There was a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom and a restroom. There were two rooms that have 4 bunk beds each, so each room can have 16 people in total. The second floor is my personal space, equipped with an office, a bathroom, a restroom and a master bedroom. The double door at the back leads to the basement, which acts as a storage room where there was a dimensional storage rune implemented into the basement that can store up a lot of space within it, and it can also keep things fresh and cool for a long time without refrigerating it.

In the bathrooms, there were some soap available which was really fortunate as it was magically provided by my ability, thus it is unlimited... thank fuck for that. It's the same in the toilets where there is this plant by the toilet that can grow a lot of large and soft leafs, used to clean your… ***Ahem!*** oneself… and those leafs grow back every day, thus making an unlimited supply of toilet paper…Wasn't sure where all the waste goes though? In the kitchen, there is also an unlimited supply of salt, under the form of a container of salt that's the size of a tissue box that grows back every day, same with the sugar that came with its own container. It's a shame I didn't have any spices and herbs, maybe they come later on where I either unlock it somehow or I find a marketplace to buy them.

I couldn't help but feel if this was cheating in some sort of way where I got more benefits out of this house than I probably should. But I couldn't help but feel as if I gathered that this was pretty much a pity gift as some sort of apology about my condition…If it was, then there is no middle finger big enough!. To be quite frank, I really did need all this as I needed something to help with the case about my wounds and my weakened state and the fact that this was a fantasy world close to medieval/ renaissance times where hygiene and modern basic living needs were going to be a major issue.

As soon as I was inspecting every room in my command centre, I then went upstairs into my own private office that had a comfortable leather chair that does not swivel and was included with armrests, a mahogany desk, a book case and few cabinets. Overall, it's a pretty basic office design, but it was pretty old fashioned.

This is the room that acts as my main area of operations, the most important room of the building. This is where I can focus on my Base Management skill the strongest which shows me everything within my territory and which I use to activate some other functions that came with this power.

Unsurprisingly, I did have a territory mechanic. Each time a building I had constructed in my land, the unclaimed area around it becomes a part of my territory. After getting my Command Centre up and running, the surrounding area that covered the whole village went up by at least 500 meters that now became part of my territory.

Fortunately, after building the Command Centre, any building that is within my territory can now be destroyed / dismantled and changed into raw materials with a simple command from me. So I did just that.

After I sent the command to the system, half of the abandoned village outside my window just turned into bright glowing dust particles and relocated themselves into the dimensional storage room inside the basement through the double doors at the back. Normally, it would've taken me hours, even days to dismantle all of that manually, where this took me a couple of minutes to half an hour at best. By that time, I was getting myself comfortable and getting used to the functions of my new base and my abilities.

As I soon learned later on, there are only several options that I can make right now concerning tier 1 buildings. Like the house, a cabin for hunters, fishermen and miners, a farm, masonry, sawmill, smithy, defence tower and a defensive palisade perimeter wall. To make them, I would need the necessary amount of resources required, as well as workers. Alternatively, I could just purchase them with my own money along with my mana points in summoning the buildings… I'd rather not go through with that and suffer through the crippling exhaustion of having to do that every time.

When I want to recruit workers, their jobs would be to gather resources, construct the buildings and then be tasked to work in them in order for the buildings to be productive.

Fortunately, I'd been given a starting budget of 100,000 in money or the equivalent in Albion's currency which was the currency of a fantasy based Britain that could very well be thousands of Gold coins or whatever currency the rest of Halkeginia uses that I had in my pockets. Alternatively, it would not matter very much with whatever currency I wished to use as every set price where I'm buying or selling in this world, it will automatically convert itself into my preferred currency one way or the other.

Wasn't sure how the value works around here… I might as well look into it later. Or even better, I could just use an alternative currency so I wouldn't get confused and waste my time over the math logic behind it… fuck, I hated mathematics sometimes.

 **Would you like to change currency?**

 **Y** **/N**

 **Please select your desired currency**

 _ **Gross Military Produce**_

I had no complaints there, as it was a fictional currency used by the Diamond Dogs/Militaries Sans Frontiers from Metal Gear Solid, the last game I played back in my old life and one I enjoyed very much.

Now, the construct personnel were clearly the more favourable option as they are made to be good top quality personnel and work force, but at a higher cost. Up front they will cost me around about **1000 GMP** or whatever currency they use here for an A to A++ rank personnel per person, whilst the highest price for a single S++ personnel can vary between **5000** to over **10000 GMP** per person, they were like an elite class of their own depending on the type of unit. The lowest it would possibly go was at least C rank personnel which was still considered above average and that was around **200 - 500** GMP per person… way too expensive.

The summoned personnel however were just simple glorified recruits, basic civilians or commoners even. More or less…they were unwanted, thrown away like trash in the wind, discarded and spat upon. They were an unfortunate lot. The main difference that mattered now was that they were free from their shackles and their torment. However, their quality is at times quite questionable for some reason, but they were malleable and you have plenty of opportunities in moulding them into what they are suited for where their strength truly lays. Thus you would be quite busy in investing the time and money you would no doubt be putting into their training and teaching them in order to make them better. Perhaps they may not seem like it when I would first summon them, but I have no doubt that they will become people that I can rely on, I hope.

When I was offered a selection, I can see many things about them from their identity such as their names, age, race, nationality and a short history about them. I can also see their attributes from their power, precision, intellect, charm and magic potential. Though it's not the current value I was looking for, but rather their potential I was more interested in. This way, I can choose the best recruit for the right job, thus increasing efficiency all around so that my work force can make any kind of buildings, weapons resources and food. However, personnel that were summoned are provided and supported by the Command Centre that they are made to be much faster in construction, productions, gathering, manufacturing, crafting and so on than what was normal, because they all receive a passive supporting ability directly from the Command Centre. Also, aside from a few exceptions, buildings from the Command Centre can only be built within the territory.

After knowing the basics of what I can do, I contemplated on my choices on what to do afterwards. Obviously I will need the food and the protection of my base, thus I needed to build up my military power and infrastructure fast for the dangers that lay ahead. The farm and the cabin for hunting and fishing will provide our food, though the farm won't be able to produce food from the start straight away, thus hunting in the woods will be a necessary step I must capitalise on. To have protection, a simple wooden palisade wall simply won't be enough, judging by the fact that there is a chance that this is a fantasy world filled with weird creatures and beasts as well as magic that can possibly knock down our walls. Because in order to be certain that nothing will threaten me, I will need the appropriate resources and manpower to build up the appropriate military force before I invest in new technologies without interference.

Although, I failed to see how it was possible to acquire fish for food when we were on an island far in the sky and all rivers lead to the sea. I suppose if we were to find any fish, it would have to be by the market or by trade, or if perhaps possible, a lake or a reservoir.

I will need a lot of stones and ore for the smithy as I will need people to find good stone deposits and then work in a quarry in order for my stone masons to make better structures. And I will then need those iron ores to make weapons, armour, equipment and tools. To get the ore, I will need people to prospect the land or I could do it personally to find them and then make a mine.

I will then need people to go into the forest to get more wood and food outside the village. And I will need an armed force to defend the surrounding lands when they are away from the base and in case if there is anything out there that could threaten this base, the village and it's... my people.

However, I found fishing to be highly unrealistic considering that finding a river on a floating island is as likely as finding an oasis in the Sahara desert which was what I believed, nor were we able to reach the sea from all the way way up here to fish directly from down below, unless we had those wind stones to install into a boat or ship.

Even if we did have the capabilities, it still wouldn't be enough. I couldn't just spawn in soldiers freely as they needed to be provided for with the basic human necessities such as clothes, water, food, shelter, hygiene, medical and several other things, they're not machines.

Therefore, food was the first main priority before increasing my work and military force. Increasing food supplies with the hunting parties will be essential while slowly scouting the area and gathering stones will increase our recruiting rate and our building potential. I already had enough wood and scraps of metal from all the dismantled buildings, but I needed stones for new and important structures.

So, I have room for 16 in the base, so I should summon 16 people. For their roles, I guess I can't have them go fishing since I've yet to confirm if there are any rivers nearby with fish in them. I guess I have to move them elsewhere, so 4 of them hunting and scouting, 3 of them gathering stones, 3 as a servant and an aid for me while the rest will be working the farms. Since 13 of them would be busy working, and I would be working as well either by scouting or gathering stones, having 2 people to take care of the house and prepare our food and bath water for us would be nice, and for me to rest and recuperate from my wounds.

I activated the magic screen again and look at the selection of recruits available. The attribute ranks of the recruits are all designated between F - E for the lowest and poorest potential or no skill whatsoever, C stands as the benchmark for average, A - A++ is for master, genius and prodigy potential, while S – S++ is for the superhuman and beyond where the units are in a level of their own.

 **F / E / D / C / B /A / A+ / A++ / S / S+ / S++**

The only people that I was willing to summon that were available for use right now were the ones that were ranked between F – D that they were so cheap that they may as well have been free at just only **10** **GMP** , so they are below average while some were not so fortunate. The constructed personnel will have to wait for a short while until I set up the foundations for this village. They weren't all that bad I must say, they just needed a chance to prove themselves. However, their worst part is that they only have F rank as for their magic potential, understandable seeing that they were just ordinary civvies/ commoners. I'm thankful to the fact that the work I have for them isn't particularly that demanding. Soon, I hope the quality of the selection will increase in due time. You never know that maybe one day… I could acquire mages of my own.

For the selection, the hunters had at least a D rank rating in power, precision and intellect for their primary stats, and all of them have previous hunting experience and knowledge in basic trap making as per what the character bio and skills have said about them.

The personnel that were collecting and gathering stones and rocks, they all have D rank ratings in power only, and the rest is at E while magic is at F, so that makes them only good for simple manual labour right now. The farmers were chosen for the farms to either work in the fields or tend to the farm animals, when I get some. They all are at least ranked at E class in power, but D in precision and intellect, though there is nothing indicating they have prior knowledge about caring for animals or managing crops. The last two were women that had a D rank in charm/ charisma and intellect, so they will be working as close aids, caretakers and servants for the house.

Overall, they were not the most…cleverest sort of people here, nor were they that physically well and healthy, but they were good and useful enough to start things off. Hopefully they'll be able to overcome their weaknesses and come into their own form soon.

Once I was finished with the selection, I then moved onto the summoning. As expected, I felt as if my energy was being sucked out from within me by the summoning, but it's not as bad as it was when I summoned the Command Centre.

Because the summoning does not happen instantly, I had just enough time to leave the study and head downstairs and into the reception room where my very first recruits were waiting. Light particles were there gathering at 16 different places, taking the shape of 16 individuals. After a minute, the 16 people that I summoned were finally finished materialising. All of them had the looks of confusion, awe and bewilderment.

When I first took a good look at them all, I was slightly shocked and dismayed. I took a bloody good look at their faces, despite all of them having about below average looks, if not slightly ugly. The thing that got me was the fact that all of them were in a rather poor state of health, as if they had escaped from poverty or a slave labour camp. Whether they were malnourished, sickly looking, pale, dirty, scarred, scared or shaking, they looked to have suffered greatly from wherever they came from. They were also wearing clothes that were in such a poor state that they looked as if they were wearing rags that were barley being held together by string.

However, I did notice that they all had a very small tattoo/rune that glimmered slightly in a light blue hue in the centre of their foreheads, to what I understand is that it is my mark that's on their foreheads, somewhat like a familiar rune, the sign that they belong to me and are now linked to my ability. It looked like a vertical diamond shape with a small circle in the centre of their foreheads. it kind of got me thinking a bit, as it sort of reminded me that it looked like a third eye.

When I think about it, it is like a form of slavery, but they're voluntary slaves with nothing more to lose… it still didn't make me feel any better about doing this, but something tells me that I had little to no choice, so I just went with it.

Their gazes quickly gather onto me, to which I was standing right in front of them. Their expressions were once ones that looked like meek and terrified mice, but now they all had looks of reverence, gratitude, and anxiety. Then, with various speeds, they all bowed their heads down to me some of them even resting their heads on the floor.

"A-Are Y-You the M-Master that's S-Summoned us?" Said the gruff looking man with a deep bass like voice with an ugly scar trailing down diagonally across his nose and who looked to be about 34 years old. He looked to have originated from Germania as to how tanned and muscular he looked, or what muscle he had left. And the deep dark brown hair he had that trailed down to his shoulders was in a messy and unkempt state. He spoke in a tone that sounded like he was in disbelief and shock and then he went on to show how grateful he was. "To think that somebody would… would take in a failure like me? I thought it was the end, but…you accepted me…I am yours…please order me to do anything, I will do my absolute best and complete any task you have for me." The passion in his voice was so strong that he was even crying.

"M-Master. Thank you very much for accepting me as your servant, for giving me and my daughter another chance at life" says the woman whom I chose to be a servant, with tears cascading from her eyes. "I'm willing to do anything for you, whatever you will wish from me I will do anything. I... I will do my best not to disappoint you!" she added while sobbing and bawling whilst holding onto another girl who was also selected to be a servant alongside this one. The woman as to what it said on her bio, was said that she was a mother at 17 and is now 33, but her looks made her look ragged and old. Her hair was greying more than normal despite her age, her face had lost its softness and was riddled with wrinkles, a gaunt like face, scars and scratches, bags under her eyes, and she'd lost too much weight. I also noticed that there were scars near her shoulders and arms along with her daughter.

Her daughter on the other hand was 16 and she looked sickly, pale and very thin. They were both holding onto each other, crying in rejoice. It seems that I acquired two servants or former maids that were actually family. I most likely have picked up these two at the moment before they were about to die from whatever causes I did not know about. But the scene of multiple people that were about to speak as well as cry. I was slowly losing my patience as the emotional scene was kind of putting me off.

Don't get me wrong, I can understand them. They were probably right on the edge of their limits, either physically or mentally before when I summoned them into my service or something. This was something that I will have to deal with later. Dealing with emotional people was something I had very little experience in and was not comfortable dealing with right now.

While listening to their cries, I had the look of an uncomfortable deadpan as I could not muster up any moisture on me to sweat drop from the scene I was now witnessing. 'Good grief…just what the hell have they all been through?'

Before they could start to continue further, I raised my hand in order to silence the new group of followers. I can definitely understand their desperation and gratitude. I hadn't a clue from what they suffered from, the civil war perhaps? Or maybe they all individually suffered from poverty, their own countries oppression or perhaps by certain tyrannical people and organisations and they were all wronged somehow by them?

Now all I had to do was ease their minds by gently introducing myself and come off as non-threatening and friendly "My name… is Zachary Crowshaw." I realised that it hadn't worked out as well as I'd thought as they all reeled themselves back as they heard my rough and harsh voice from my smoke infested lungs, mixed in with the appearance and my steel grey gaze, I looked quite the intimidating figure as I looked and sounded similar to Joshua Graham and a little bit of a guttural growl like Ulysses from Fallout NV.

I contemplated on whether to use my own name, but I just shrugged and told myself that it wouldn't matter much. "To you, you may refer to me as your Boss" ok I wasn't really sure what I was getting into here when I just announced that. Despite the fact that I had no reason to keep my old name, I could just call myself Joshua Graham and these would be my tribe of Dead Sorrows for all I care.

"Many of you have been summoned here today to work for me me, but do not expect your life here to become easy because you escaped from whatever hellish life you escaped from since before you have joined me. We are starting from scratch, building this village from the ground up into something worthy and I will have you work hard to improve our situation in these forsaken lands… Follow me, I will show you your new home as you will be very familiar about this place soon enough." I said as I lead them to the 2 bedrooms in the ground floor. "These will be your living quarters for the time being, they are shared so please sort it amongst yourselves on who's sleeping where." I explained to them as they all brightened up once they heard that they were to get their own beds.

"The first floor is my private floor, only the two maids may enter my private quarters and office, but under my permission only." I said as a cautionary advice that made them all nodded fervently and the mother and child nodded simultaneously, not wanting to upset me.

Then I led them outside. They were looking around curiously around the house and at the village in the distance as we go at the back of the building.

"Behind those doors lies the storage room. Anything, from food to raw materials can be safely stored inside. You have no need to worry about spoiled food as the Food won't rot inside, so you won't have to worry about conservation. You also don't have to worry about the amount of things placed inside as there will always be room within. It's all part of my special ability, you see." I explained to them.

The 16 people were all visibly impressed by the capabilities of the building. One of the maids, the young girl mustered up the courage to ask her master. "Forgive me for asking my lord, but…ar-are you a noble?"

I moved my gaze over the meek and shy teenage girl "If you are referring to me as a noble because of the magic I may possess, then no I am not. Just because I can do a bit of magic does not qualify me as a noble, not all nobles are mages."

"Yet not all mages are nobles." she responded quite bravely and accurately that made me stare in a hint of surprise and intrigue directly at her for her bold remark, causing her to shrink as she made a small squeaking noise and buried herself in her mother's arms. Both of them looked nervous, fearing as if I were offended by her answering back.

But to their surprise, I chuckled at her boldness and sound response "Clever girl…I can see you have potential in that head of yours…you should use it more often, never mind what they say." I smiled through the bandages and my eyes held a warm feeling behind them as I walked up to the girl and patted her gently on the head. The girl and the mother were surprised that I didn't punish her or shout at her on the spot. Instead of what they expected, I encouraged her on her main strength that had been stunted due to fear of upsetting the nobles. The girl herself gained a light shy blush at the praise.

"Like I said earlier, we are building civilisation from scratch. The place we are at right now is an abandoned village in the far north of Albion, north of the highlands and along the northern coastline where we are safe here for the time being. There is no food here, so you will have to gather whatever food you can find, hunt or scavenge by hunting and perhaps fishing if it is possible. The old buildings from the village were dismantled to make new and better buildings as I have enough resources for said buildings for you to build new homes and important structures. You are going to rebuild a village here… And with time, it will turn into a town, then a city, and soon… maybe a nation" I waited for a brief moment to let that piece of information to sink into their minds as they all gulped in anticipation and nervousness.

A hunter raised his hand nervously before I nodded my head to give him the permission to speak. "Erm…master? You... did you not know that rivers do exist in Albion? I'm a native to Albion and I live quite close to one, there's even fish in them."

I looked genuinely puzzled at the man who just mentioned that "Is there? How is that possible?"

"There are popular folk tales that tell of mountain sprits that use powerful magic to release a never ending stream of fresh water from down the mountains and all across Albion ever since the kingdom was first raised into the sky that provides the whole nation with fresh water, even fish have managed to survive in our rivers for many years."

"Well…that solves one problem, despite how impossible that sounded" I murmured to myself, unsure of what to think of that as he was certain that there would be no rivers in Albion. Perhaps the rain from the nearby clouds could also provide fresh water.

I looked over towards the horizon and noticed that the sun was starting to set, meaning we were kind of burning up daylight by standing around here and I wanted to set up things for tomorrow as soon as possible.

Looking at the time on my personal HUD, I saw that the time had just past 6 PM "There is only around 2 hours of daylight left, so we're going to use use them.

If anyone could find a suitable river nearby where there are fishes, then you are to make a fishing cabin there. You will find the building materials and tools in the storage room. The sooner we finish this, the better our chances are for tomorrow, but don't rush yourselves or you could lead up to making mistakes."

"Y-Yes, Master. We won't disappoint you" says the once burly man eagerly as were the rest of the 16 people.

The 16 people then took off to go to work with haste that kind of made me impressed by their enthusiasm. Despite their current physical state, they were going at it with the motivation like kids high on sugar.

The places I have selected to construct certain buildings were magically cleared of any debris, object and land that obstructed the construction process and were marked for construction by a blue hologram like banner.

The Command Centre provided them with the blueprints and instructions thanks to the mark on their foreheads. All the materials and tools were also prepared as well for them, courtesy form me. In fact, when materials are put in the storage room, the Command Centre processes all unrefined materials and then prepares them to be ready for usage. The planks and beams are already prepared for them, and there were even threads and ropes that were made of plant fibres that were made ready for them in case if they needed them. Any old metallic pieces from the abandoned buildings, even rusted ones, are then restored and turned into useful materials such as nails and other components that can be used for the construction.

* * *

Good news! I soon discovered that there was a river just beyond my territory, but the cabin is one of those buildings that can be made beyond the territory. The 16 servants will then have to make several trips to bring the materials from the command centre to the riverside, and then they will begin building The fishing Cabin just close enough to the river. While they are working, I prepared some torches because I want them to be able to continue working two hours after the sun has set.

Then, a thought hit me. Was I really going to make them work in their current state? Granted they looked like they would accept any order I give them with a smile on their face. But they looked as if they could fall over any minute due to how starved they look. Now that I think about it, I did find a little bit of food inside the command centre for today, but it does not look like it would be enough to sustain them…I guess I should try to get them a few fish. I wasn't just going to let them starve.

So I went off to the river away from the others as I wanted to fish in peace. Fortunately, the river was only a 5 minute walk away from the village, and lo and behold there were loads of fishies! For the fishing trip I decided to create some tools that I found were needed, tools that were taken from the storage room. Using my ability to convert the materials instead of my willpower, I created a wooden spear and a basic fishing rod using a wooden stick and some string, an iron tipped blade for the spear and the iron tipped hook for the fishing rod as well as a crossbow with steel tipped bolts for protection with a pull lever for reloading the crossbow that I summoned from my power without crafting. I also made myself up an entrenching tool which surprisingly it allowed me to make one as I used the materials on me to make a tool and a weapon for self-defence.

As I managed to dig some worms with the entrenching tool on the way, being careful not to dirty my bandages too much. I even considered using a bit of the dried meat from my inventory as bait. I've only been fishing a few times in my life, so I roughly know what I was doing… although I never had a strong interest in it so I am quite ignorant about most things about fishing.

The river is around 70m wide and the current isn't that strong. There were a lot fishes in the water like it was open season, thus I relaxed a bit as I feel as if this couldn't be that hard to find a catch. Considering that the river was crystal clear and fresh, unlike the rivers back home and in some parts of the world where it was sometimes filled with dirty muddy water or whether or not it was filled with pollution, trash and loads of plastic and various scrap metals just dumped in there.

I raised my fishing rod and stuck it in in place by the river after putting a worm on the hook and then throwing the line into the water. I then took my distance from that spot and go to another spot a fair distance away, but still close to the rod in case I caught something and where I could also use the wooden spear up close.

Knowing that I've never thrown a spear like a javelin before, I tied a thread on it to retrieve it after each throw when I mess up the throw or miss the fish entirely. I didn't want to lose the only spear I had while I could use my ability to summon more spears or craft them, or even make a bow and some arrows or just use my crossbow. I wanted to fish by this method as I don't have the confidence or skill to get up close to the fishes undetected without them fleeing. And I did want to increase my number of skills.

"Ok, they say fishing is all about patience. The water distorts the light, tricking us about the real position of the fish. Also, fishes always move forward when they run away, not backwards, not sideways, they can only dodge by advancing, yes, they can change direction after the initial movement, but that initial movement will always be forward..." I mused to myself as I focused on one fish in particular that I had my eye on.

I got into a throwing position and waited patiently, checking the different targets positions and waiting for a good chance to attack. I also kept the fishing rod in my sight just in case something caught onto the bait and hook. Once my intended fish got close enough, I raised the spear and threw it into the water…

 ***Thunk***

Yep, that failed…I ended up rushing it and the tip of the spear landed flat into the water, causing a large splash in the water. My actions scared the fish and retreated further up the river.

"Hmm~" I hummed irritably to myself. "This is going to take a while" I murmured to myself as I pulled the thread to retrieve my spear as I prepped up my arm and prepared for a another throw until I noticed that the fishing rod was bending and the line was stretching.

Gasping to myself, I immediately ran over to the fishing rod. "Fish!" I yelled out in joy and jumped on the fishing rod and pulled up to yank that fish out of the water. Luckily I managed not to break the line and the rod itself for my reckless behaviour. I managed to acquire a moderately sized fish about the size of an average woodland critter like a squirrel.

"Yes!" I cheered to myself,

 **You have learned a new skill**.

 _ **Fishing – level 1**_

'Perhaps this was not a waste of time after all.' I thought to myself as I tried to store the fish into my inventory.

 **You cannot store living creatures or people into your inventory.**

"Huh…" I mused to myself until I spotted a decent sized rock buried halfway into the ground.

 ***Smack!***

 **Critical Hit!**

 **-21Hp**

"Ehhh~…lovely" I groaned as I saw fish blood oozing from the head that splattered open against the stone and then seeping into my bandages by my hand, I knew I should've worn gloves.

A wet smack was later heard echoed across the area as I smacked another head of another fish against the hard surface of the rock, killing it instantly. Shrugging to myself as I was kind of immune to the whole feeling of the sight of blood and gore right now due to the logic and mechanics of the gamer's mind. But I did almost puke my guts out when I first witnessed the disembowelment of a fish when I first went fishing with my uncle and in biology class when they showed the organs of a pig still attached together to the whole class, I had the worst reaction out of all of them.

Every few minutes, I would alternate between throwing the spear at a target, and missing every time. But each time I throw the spear, I was sure that I was getting the hang of it and I was getting closer to the goal of finally getting that bastard fish with the tip of my spear.

30 minutes later, I finally get my first fish with a spear, although half-an-hour has already gone by, and there is only an hour of sunlight left. But fortunately, it was enough for me to catch 17 well sized fish before nightfall, so it wasn't a complete waste of time…even though it was the fishing rod that did most of the work… have to make more of them next time.

When the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, I made my way back to the village and I found out that the cabin was around 55% till completion. I was pretty impressed actually as they worked fast and efficiently and they did not lag behind or took any breaks unlike modern day construction crews who in comparison to these people, they seemed pretty lazy and incompetent despite the obvious defects they had on them.

My minions… Minions? Villagers… followers or whatever, they continued to work while I brought all the fishes I caught from my inventory to the kitchen to cook them fresh. I cooked one for myself for my supper along with whatever of my rations I had on me and I left the other food for the hard workers. I could've had the help of the two maids from earlier, but they were helping out with the construction and I wanted to do this personally.

* * *

After about an hour of preparing dinner, I went to get them to join me at the dining table. When I checked up on them, the Cabin was around 75% done, and I'm sure it will be done well before midnight if I wanted them to carry on working through the night, they surely wouldn't have any objections to it, but I didn't really want to put them through that…I'm not a slave driver, right?

As soon as I gathered them to the dining room table, I requested for them to sit down as I and the two maids brought all of their meals to the table. They were unsure of what was happening and their stomachs were all roaring in hunger as they tried to hide their shame by not looking at the food. "Those fishes are the ones I caught especially for all of you, for all of your hard work… I want you to eat them all tonight" I tell them all as I sat down at the head of the table. "You lot are all malnourished, sickly pale, and dreadfully thin and weakened… all of you need to eat well to have the energy and the will to work and to protect yourselves… so eat up everyone… because tomorrow you will all be at work all day long, for we have plans to commit to...as soon as the fishing cabin by the river is completed, we will then move onto the abandoned farm and restore it, we do need a source for producing our food, that will be a good start. Maybe we can start on the hunter's cabin next to the forest to the south of us." I mumbled to myself at the end after I told them that they need to have their fill of food.

Although I was kind of unaware of the impact of the simple words I said to them as they were all stunned into silence as they did not know what to say. Most of their lives, all that they knew was from being treated as mere dirt from the poor treatment under the callous, cruel and uncaring noble masters. Nobody dared to move and accept the meal at first, but the young maid girl took the first brave and reluctant move to accept her Master's request and picked up a slice of fish by her hand and put it in her mouth.

While her hands trembled in fear as she moved the piece of fish into her mouth and soon as she bit down on it "Mmmm!~" she instantly melted at the flavour of the fish meat that flourished her taste buds and tears were pouring out of her eyes in a stream. "D-D-D…This is Delicious!" she wept. "Thank you M-M-Master, I will accept this gracious gift that was made by your love and care for us commoners." She bawled a she dug into her dish with fervour with her hands.

While I made a sweat drop at her over-exaggerated passion and humbleness in her words just now, I had to reprimand her to correct her mistake of messy eating. "Knives and forks, please." I told her as she paused and blushed and went to pick them up rather awkwardly and stared at them rather puzzled. I sighed to myself as I stood up from my chair and walked over to her and stood behind her and took hold of both of her hands. "Like this" I said softly as I guided her through the simple process of using recycled metal cutlery to eat food, it was like teaching a cute little sister through the basics of life with an awestruck look on her face. The girl just blushed furiously at the close contact of her master, as she felt the heat from his chest pressing into her small malnourished back that made her feel terrified and fearful as if she was afraid that I would be repulsed by her physical state… how could I be? I was doing what I could to remedy all that.

After she got that down, she continued to eat her meal with great enthusiasm and the rest of the group picked up on the methods of using cutlery rather well, which I was thankful for, and they too enjoyed my cooking and with what I did with the fish as well as the basic sides that came with the food such as dried meat and basic fruit I had on me.

Looking puzzled by their overreactions, I decided to loosen my bandages and pulled them down to reveal my burn scarred mouth, not that they would dare question it, and I placed a piece of fish into my mouth…

I then made a stone faced deadpan expression, feeling non too impressed about my cooking skills 'Bleh…too bland' typical that I did not like my own cooking that much, I wasn't an expert in it… but they on the other hand looked as if it were the food of the gods, that kind of left me feeling rather awkward when I didn't share their enthusiasm and optimism in my cooking.

As soon as dinner was done, they were all completely satisfied and the Germanian hunter soon bellowed out. "Thank you very much for your hospitality, Master!" he said loudly with passion and gratitude burning in his eyes.

I chuckled sheepishly at his brash forwardness. "Hehehe, that's okay…"

"I shall never forget this!...You said you wanted that farm restored and completed as soon as the fishing hut was complete, right?"

I raised a brow at where this was going "Erm…Yeah?"

"Then we'll finish those two buildings just before midnight, Master! Come on everyone! We must repay our master's kindness by completing our tasks! Even better, now that I have food in my belly, I feel as if I could complete them both in a jiffy! Maybe we could even build the hunter's cabin just before midnight!?" he

"Yeah!" they all cheered

"Huh?...whoa, wait a sec!" I tried to voice out my objection but It was already too late as they were already pumped up and were all out the front door and charged towards the fishing hut and went back to work with renewed vigour and motivation, their efficiency and effort boosted for an extra 10% or more.

I sighed as I pressed my left palm against my bandaged face "And they're already gone… damn, I tried telling them that it could possibly be dangerous out at night, but I do respect their enthusiasm. I think I should get right into summoning some guards for this place and for them." I murmured to myself as I cleared the table and placed them all in the kitchen, I couldn't really wash the dishes now could I? Not with all the burn marks and bandages.

I soon left the kitchen and headed up the stairwell and went to my own floor. I've worked a lot during the day, a lot of overexerted physical work compared to spending the day in front of a computer that I normally do. I was too exhausted, shattered and wasted to do anything else, not even cleaning as I hadn't got around to figuring out how I would wash my own scarred and burned body.

But before I went to bed, I needed some form of military in this village.

So I went onto the summoning menu and selected Construct summoning. The military selection was pretty basic as I had only one unit type up for selection.

 **Militia**

 **GMP** – _ **50 (Untrained)**_

 **Weapons** – _**Basic Spear, Hatchet, medieval spike Club, Hunting bow (Examples)**_

 **Armour** – _**Leather armour set. Brigandine Armour set, hooded trench coat**_

 **Unit rank will affect the individual price per unit**

So over all, they were not the best equipped but if I were to summon units at… let's say, A rank it would cost me…

 **1050 GMP** per unit

Whoa!... Ok let's not go too crazy here as I'm on a tight budget here. Let's just play it safe for now as I kind of want a decent sized group of 2 squads of 20 militia personnel. I had enough money, so I decided to buy two squads of 10 units each. 2 A ranks, 4 B ranks and 14 C ranks. That should be good enough, as I selected summon, and I saw the light in the reception area as I walked back downstairs to greet them.

When I walked into the room, this time I was given quite the surprise. When the light was gone, I saw a decently sized group of soldiers all lined up in order and perfectly symmetrical. All of them were dressed in a sea of differing varieties of uniforms and armour.

While the armour was what I requested, the uniform however looked quite modern, I think I've seen it somewhere from a certain ga-…oh wait, now I remember where. It's the Diamond Dogs Uniform but without the logo and in a few different shades varying between black, dark green and grey. The armour itself was coloured dark brown to black. The weapons summoned from my power were pretty decent as well, as if they were factory fresh or fresh form the forge.

Not only that, I noticed that many of them had different nationalities among them as well as a difference in genders as surprisingly there were women soldiers also present in this group. The ratio of the group seemed pretty even, but when I did the head count, I noticed that there was an odd number of more women than men. 12 women to 9 men exact….Wait a sec?...12 + 9 =….21? Why was there an extra personnel among this group?

I then noticed that I was staring too intently as my awe got the better of me at the number of soldiers in front of me, but I couldn't help the feeling that despite the Gamer's mind's passive ability… I felt rather… intimidated by their presence. They were all just standing there lined up in a tense silence, waiting for my orders. These people did not mess about.

Fortunately, someone in the group decided to break the silence when a female Japanese looking soldier stepped up and stood in front of me and stamped her foot on the ground and snapped up a perfect salute to him. I then realised that she must be the odd one out from the 20 selected personnel that somehow made it past my transaction. She was standing directly in front of the group with the air of authority around her. She had shoulder length raven black coloured hair, she was 5'6 and was built like a pro athlete/ MMA fighter.

Lieutenant 1st Class Hasagawa! Leader of the 1st platoon reporting for duty! And if you wish for it, I shall be your 2nd in command and right hand woman. If Master also wills it I shall also be your aide and guide you in this world, please look after me!" She stated before doing a firm bow.

I blinked at the stern and passionate greeting before recollecting myself as I heard something interesting. "A guide!? I thought I already had one with the NPC?...speaking of which, where is he? I haven't seen him in the past few hours after I was done fishing?" I asked, puzzled as to wh he disappeared all of a sudden.

"Master, I was asked to pass this on." the hot Japanese lieutenant reached into her breast pocket and fished out a note and handed it to me.

As I accepted and unravelled the note, it read.

 **Just got called in to solve a problem, I will leave you with her.**

 **PS**

 **The virus may or may not have done something to your personnel. If so?… please check on your personnel by using the Appraisal skill [Observe] if you have it already?**

'What the hell could that mean? Is there something wrong with them?' okay I will admit that did unnerve me a bit.

But I don't recall ever unlocking the " **Observe"** skill

You have unlocked a new skill

 **Observe – Level 1**

 _ **Hasagawa Misaki**_

 _ **Occupation - Construct Personnel (Master – Zachary Crowshaw)**_

 **Official military Rank** _ **\- Lieutenant 1**_ _ **st**_ _ **class**_

 **Unit Skill rank:**

Combat – A+

R&D - C

Base Development - C

Support - B

Intel: A++

Medical: A

 **Skills:**

 _Recon, Scout, sword master, Assassin, infiltration, Espionage, Saboteur, Field Medic, housekeeping, Aide, Body Guard_

 **Personality:**

Well Disciplined

Calm

Cool

 _Fanaticism - Target of Worship (?)_

 _Love Enthusiast - Target of Affection (?)_

 _Devotion - Target of Loyalty (?)_

 _Dependence - Target of Reliance (?)_

I read over the status effects on her personality status and only those last four in particular and could only utter four words that explains my reaction quite well…"What!?...What the fuck!?" he read out in shock.

"Is there something the matter, master?" the lieutenant asked me, rather concerned.

I choked and coughed on my own spit as I just realised that I overreacted over what I just read and was making a scene. I couldn't really keep a straight face after reading that asi became quite nervous when I read the last four and who the intended target could be…it's pretty obvious as to who she's interested in.

"N-Nothing…Everything's fine." I waved off her concern, which made her seem to accept it as she stood back to attention and continued to stare at me intently with those bright blue expectant eyes and her rune that was the exact same rune the others had was also shimmering brightly. I wonder if there's a way to turn that off.

I then inspected all of the personnel that made up the small platoon. They all varied physically as what the ability description said it would from age, gender, physique, height, nationality and race etc.

The men all looked physically fit and healthy, most of them had a well-balanced Olympic swimmer's build, MMA build, while others had a larger build to suit their height and weight that was mainly built for strength and power, like a power lifter. One almost had a similar build to Tom Hardy's Bane from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises.

The women on the other hand while they are physically fit, but they were also total bombshells that made little sense to me. While they wore practical clothing and armour, I could see that they had well developed breasts beyond that of a C cup or more. Their waists were slender and perhaps toned and had muscular abs, their legs were long but I suspected they were condensed and toned with muscle as were their arms which some of them had a notable bulge stretching out the coat sleeves on some of them.

You can't come to a war zone looking like supermodel, is all I'm saying. If a woman were to go to a battlefield, she needs to bulk up in muscle and git seriously fit and she would have to know how to get rough.

"It may seem like there are a lot more female soldiers to you, but their skill level doesn't fall behind that of the males, so don't let that deceive you. We are perfectly capable of killing our Master's enemies just as much as the males are, so you don't have to worry about them holding us all back" Misaki stated firmly, as if reading my mind.

I almost jumped out of my boots as I was caught off-guard by her direct gaze staring right into my eyes when I was musing to myself that seemed to stare right through my soul. "Err..I-I-I-I was not thinking about that, I was not questioning your capabilities, but I would like to see what you and the platoon can do." I coughed sheepishly to myself to try and mend the embarrassing moment.

"At once master!" she nodded and saluted enthusiastically and waited eagerly for her orders for the small platoon. "What do you wish of me!?...or us!?" she said expectantly as well as a bit too eager to serve me.

'This girl is way too into this…' I deadpanned, but nonetheless I gave out her orders for her new assignment.

"Out there are 16… civvies…that are all working hard out there. I need you to patrol the village and the outskirts and protect them whilst they are doing their jobs."

"Rules of engagement?" a largely built man at 6'4 with a Russian accent carrying a Warhammer with two spiked tips on the top and back of the hammer. He looked to be the tankiest person here as his body was covered head to toe in leather and brigandine armour with the head being covered by a hood and cloth facemask.

"Pardon?" I blinked at the person who suggested that.

"In case if we encounter enemy? What will you have us do?"

That was a good question… I wasn't naïve to not understand that there will definitely be hostile forces beyond our borders. Whether they be humans, demi-humans, elves, monsters or what else is out there… how would I know who or what is friend or foe? Excluding the canon characters… I have to be careful around here. "If they prove hostile and they enact an unprovoked attack… you may take them out, but spare them if any surrender and leave one alive for capture and interrogation if they don't."

I then felt the aura around the militia shifted a little as their eyes glinted like cold steel.

"Yes Master, it will be done." The Russian sergeant nodded and nodded to the other sergeant who was a female who stood at 5'8. She had neck length dirty blonde hair carrying dual tomahawks, had the look of a tough looking sergeant you did not want to mess with close up, She wore a ripped sleeveless trench coat that showed off her impressive toned muscular arms with tattoos circling her arms in a tribal pattern. She had this stoic and no nonsense look as she looked on without a care in the world while her tanned skin and emerald eyes glistened in the evening sun that came through the window.

They all filed out with torches by their sides, bows and crossbows nocked and loaded, and knives and shurikens hidden away in their sleeves just in case as they all left the room and out of the front door with their equipment in tow. I also noticed that they all have several equipment that they had that I don't remember including, there were several other equipment on them such as an entrenching tool, a trident, studded cudgel, A kanabo, a Bo staff, A Dane Axe and a kusarigama sickle. While some of them had round wooden shields with wooden morning stars in their right hands.

As soon as they all left, I looked over to Misaki who was standing there expectantly.

"Erm, aren't you going with them?"

"I'm to be your aide and bodyguard, it's my duty to protect you and look out for you."

I wasn't really convinced by that "I don't really need babysitting…"

"Your wounds say otherwise. Your bandages get in the way and your burns are causing you great pain and you don't exactly know how to wash yourself when you have burn wounds." She said rather bluntly, as if she was getting the point across on the matter.

'She's…got me there.' I clicked my tongue. "I don't exactly have the tools or medical appliances available to help me heal.

"True, which is why we need a doctor, a merchant and a herbalist or a mage." She explained.

"I guess I can see the point in that." I nodded at that logic. "So you're going to stay by my side regardless?"

"It is my duty, Master." She stated resolutely.

That caused me to sigh. "That's…kind of unnecessary. Also, why'd you call me master? Can't you call me by my name or something else at least?" I was kind of getting put off by the whole Master business.

No, I will not. Because Master, is Master. The way we call you Master is absolute and thus cannot be changed. If it pleases you, you can call me by my first name without any honorifics?" she said firmly at the beginning, but then it shifted as her tone got rather eager

"I'm English, Misaki. I don't even need to use them. We always call other people on a first name basis, even if we just met them" I deadpanned at her suggestion, only to see the lieutenant avert her gaze in embarrassment and to see her blush quite cutely.

"Then, if Master wishes… we can call you by another title of similar value?...when in public?"

"…There's no way of convincing you, is there?" I asked hopelessly as she shook her head. I sighed and nodded to give her the go ahead.

"So then…John-sama?" she offered

"Ehh~…let's not go there." I looked uncomfortable by that, as I had years of watching some pretty edgy anime shows and mangas to know where my head will be going once I hear that.

"Your Greatness?"

"Hell no!" I looked offended by it, I wasn't a king or a god…at least…not a king, yet…let's no cross that territory yet.

"Your Holiness?"

"Why though?" I face palmed at that. That was just even worse than being called greatness.

"Boss?"

"…Fine,go on then, but only in public" I finally relented and accepted my honorific title to her pleasure.

"Boss-sama it is then" she then beamed as I face faulted at her decision to call me that with the added honorific regardless.

Misaki looked visibly pleased by my acceptance "Then when we're alone or out of the public eye and in our village, I will refer to you by your proper title." Misaki smiled radiantly as she insisted on calling me that anyways as it seemed to give her great comfort and pleasure.

I nodded at that and decided that I had enough for today. "Yeah…I'm heading to bed now. If you're sating up, could you be on lookout around the house and village for any signs of trouble, Oh and make sure the civvies are in their beds by the time they are done. I don't want them to overexert themselves as they need to recover their strength.

"That can be done Master, but I must protest that you need to wash your wounds first. You've gotten your bandages dirty and they need changing and your wounds cleaned."

"I'm sure that can be done till tommo-"

"No, I must insist that we do this now. Otherwise, you might run the risk of infection" she objected sternly and her glare told me this was non-negotiable.

'Jesus, that's pretty nerve-wracking." I gulped when I witnessed her silent feminine fury.

"I then relented and I told her to lead the way towards the bathroom, but insisted that we only clean my upper torso and nothing else as I wanted some sleep.

She didn't object, but she seemed quite… disappointed?

As she sat me down on a stool, I took off my white button up shirt that revealed my torso. I wasn't exactly that fit, but I did have a bit of muscle here and there. As Misaki was unravelling me to reveal the aftermath of my damaged and burned skin, I flinched every time the bandage was peeled away from my skin and the painful reminder of how I got them.

Misaki, I knew she was aware of my reaction to my injuries… because I could see the look of pure resentment and hatred… not aimed at me, but at those poor bastards whose going to wish that we never come home.

It turns out we have a water supply tank in the basement of the house. Although limited, it was enough to fill the bathtub with hot water and the tank will somehow refill itself by tomorrow.

As hax as it is, I couldn't just rely on it and I needed my own water supply for my future village people because I couldn't supply a whole village or town with water coming from my house, to hydrate everyone or water the crops, I needed a well, or a water pump connected to the river I saw earlier.

I couldn't have a hot bath as I needed to use cool water to ease my pain and the soap surprisingly has some healing and disinfectant properties and effects similar to morphine, but those effects only happen to me because the virus somehow changed the effects on the soap and bathroom that it will only work on my summons… does the game hate me by any chance?

As I had my back turned to face Misaki, I noticed in the mirror's reflection…Misaki is going slightly red and her lips were twitching. She still held up a face of pure professionalism and carried on scrubbing my back. I didn't dare question it as I remembered what I read on her personalities of what It said on her status page. I wasn't a moron to not know what they meant and who it was aimed at…to be honest, I quite scared….wait, what does that mean for the rest of my summoned personnel?

After that was done, my bandages were re-wrapped around my torso, arms and head, I left the bathroom leaving a red faced but quiet Misaki who was disposing of the buckets of water down the drain.

"I'll be…heading off to bed now… could you keep an eye out for any trouble while the workers are currently doing their thing?"

"Hai, Master" she said with a nod. "You don't have to worry, we have it all handled." She assured me

Well, I had no reason to not trust her on her word. I mean, what would she gain by lying to me? I nodded my head and quickly headed off to my bedroom and locked the door behind me and just flopped onto the bed like a falling tree… bad idea as I just proved ot myself that my face was still in pain.

Groaning to myself as I waited for the pain to subside, I then reflected to myself on what I was going to do for tomorrow and what will happen in future with me in this universe. Thinking about it only made me more tired and I couldn't be fucked anymore to think on it any further… I really could do with a good drink right now... oh wait, I haven' unlocked a brewery yet.

'Fuck, it's a long way to go from here.' I mused to myself as I just zone out and fell into a deep sleep as the exhaustion just hit me like a train.

As I drifted off, I couldn't help but notice a multiple textboxes that were popping up sporadicly. The texts were blurry but I did see something like.

 **+8EXP**

 **+10EXP**

 **You have levelled up!**

 **+12GMP**

 **+102GMP**

Strange as it was, I was too tired to care. Even the faint terrified sounding of screeches that's happening outside didn't deter me from getting up, could be a bird for all I know. Besides, they'll wake me up in case if it was an emergency, right?

 **AN: No combat here, but there will be...soon.**


	3. Chapter 3: First Blood

**AN:**

 **Ok, this one took a little longer than expected. Gamer fics are incredibly tedious to make, especially when I have to consider the hundreds of potential upgrades, units, and technologies to make and include in this.**

 **I've read the reviews and I want to thank all the people who made to attempt of getting involved in suggesting possible structures technology, upgrades and pontential units. There may come a time where I may include magic units, but I try to at least keep it reasonable. like for example, I research mithril and ebony metals to add to my armor and weapon construction and research as an alternative path to science research but can also research at the same time provided you've got the money, time and resources.**

 **Also, I am very annoyed by this one review who's decided to waste my time and patience in spamming a review totally not related to my story in any way but preaching to his...*Ahem!" "religion". I don't know if he was trolling, which I highly suspect that he is, or he's just that desperate to let everyone know that God is still and always watching us... provided that he still remembers us as he is still consumed by his celestial dementia. I'm not the only victim of his constant spamming, he's done to other people's reviews and spam posted in several areas of certain fictions and crossovers. That just really grinds my gears...:(**

 **To those who wanted combat in this chapter, there will be combat...but there will be more in the next chapter.**

* * *

 **First Blood**

After a decent night's sleep, I woke up feeling quite refreshed…well, not really. In fact the bastard game system did not even bother giving me any bonuses or negate the effects of me waking up in the mornings such as lethargy and grogginess.

Well, guess I'm going to have to invent coffee in this world pretty soon then, if I could. Thinking about it, my mouth and throat feels really dry and sore like someone shoved lumps of burning hot coal down in there and poured lighter fluid down the hatch and set it alight just to add salt upon the wounds.

 ***Knock! Knock! Knock!***

Hm? There's somebody who's eager at my bedroom door that wants me up as it seems, so I slowly rose up from my bed and went to answer it. As soon as I unlocked the door and opened it to see that it was the young maid girl who appeared to be in decent spirits at least and her face seemed brighter and fuller and… Hold on?

I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times to adjust my eyes, clearly befuddled by what I was seeing right now.

"Good morning Master!" she bowed her head and gave me her best, brightest and cheerful smile she could muster.

"What the…?" I gawked at her in shock as the amount that has changed about her was staggering! She was no longer dreadfully thin and her skin had brightened up instead of looking like a deathly pale person on the verge of death. She also seemed to have more meat on her bones and filled out her rag dress decently enough at least. Her looks, while not much to look at or turn a few heads around still, she at least had some nicer features to compliment about, plus she had the beginnings to look cute and adorable if given enough time and patience. Like her eyes how they seemed to shine like precious jewels when she was happy. Her body, while filling out a bit more than yesterday, she still hasn't got enough meat, muscle or fat in her to develop breasts, hips, waist, legs, and butt…at least, not yet…'what the hell am I thinking of here?' I mentally slapped myself as my hormones had a mind of it's own.

Her reaction faltered seeing my expression and her face morphed into slight fear, meekness, and anxiety, thus she began franticly apologising. "Iyah! I-I-I'm so sorry, Master! I apologise for disturbing you and disgracing you with my presence, I-I-it's just that…" she began to cry as tears started to well up in her eyes and wouldn't stop bowing.

Despite the Gamer's mind, I couldn't bring myself to resist the looks of an innocent young girl who had the looks of a sad puppy "Woah, hey there…calm down, I'm not mad at you." I moved to place my hands on her shoulders to stop her from bowing and to soothe her nerves, which had some minor success as it only made her flinch at the close contact.

"Sorry." I murmured out as I removed my hands from her shoulders, realising she was uncomfortable about this.

"No, that's okay… it's just that…no, never mind." She shook her head with a slight blush, avoiding the subject. My face showed nothing despite the bandages at her cute reaction, but mentally I was cursing up a storm 'Gaaaagh! Godamnit! This situation looks like it came straight out of a shitty isekai manga or novel or some shit like that!' I choked in restrained blustering fury as I was barely holding in my embarrassment.

I only shrugged calmly as I didn't want to pry any further into her personal reasons to why she was uncomfortable. However, I was very curious about something. "You look…nice this morning." Smooth moves, Zachary, real smooth… What? I've never held a charming conversation with a girl, alright. This is not my area that I have major experience in.

 **You have learnt a new skill**

 **Charm – level 1**

 **Charm or flatter your targets into letting down their guard around you, confuse them, gaining rep, Acquiring information and getting them to like you. This can also work in tandem with** **Flirt** **with the opposite gender that can increase your chances of acquiring love interests or more if it is high enough.**

'You've got to be kidding me?' my eye twitched as to what it insinuated.

The girl however just had a brighter shade of light dust of pink brightening up on her cheeks more as she avoided my gaze. 'huh, that actually worked? Although, I bet she hasn't been paid many compliments in her life as a commoner. No wonder it was considered too easy' I mused to myself despite how blunt that thought was.

"Th-Thank you, master… it's all thanks to you… well, I think it had something to do with the house, the food, and the bathroom. I ate so much more than I usually do that my bones are not visible from my skin anymore, I've never been and felt so much cleaner and healthy before that my skin looks brighter and smoother, even my scars have disappeared." She explained to me, fervently.

I blinked and then I gained a tic mark. 'What the hell!? As much as I'm happy for her, why is it only her and the rest of my summons that gained the buffs and effects from the so-called magical bathroom, soap, and food while I'm still suffering from the side effects of being burnt alive in my own home… I call bullshit!' I raged mentally.

The maid girl then suddenly remembered why she was here. "Ah! I remembered what I was going to tell you now!"

"And that is?" I tilted my head.

"We finished with the buildings you wished for to be built and renovated last night, Master." She smiled brightly. "However, the farm does not…have any crops or cattle." She said a bit disheartened.

That made me sigh and click my tongue 'Of course not, It appears that weapons, vehicles, munitions, supplies, and personnel are the only permitted things that I can summon personally. Crops, livestock and anything edible and drinkable I can't summon individually by myself and thus they are only exclusively summoned at the designated building only. Though, I bet that it will only start off with the basic necessities, I'll have to find a trader or something for some more and better crops and other things that are important like spices and coffee beans... I doubt that I'll be able to find rice though' I sighed as I mentally brought up the map and saw that the farm was indeed finished, but the lands/ fields and the buildings were pretty much empty.

The fishing cabin was apparently under use right now and they were catching a quite a fair bit of fish early in the morning, not like I even asked them to, but I think that they probably felt safe under the militia guarding this village and they wanted to repay me for my generosity, so I didn't mind the initiative that they took. And the Hunter's Cabin had finished also and was stationed near the forest. The territory had increased around the cabins by a radius of 50 metres covering parts of the forest and the river and likewise was also under use right now.

I then noticed a small icon by the map that had an exclamation mark. I hovered my gaze over it and mentally casted an observe on it and the icon flickered open a textbox that read out

 **Notifications**

'Oh, I see…so this is a notifications box that records every recent event that happened from last night.' I nodded, fully understanding at where this was going as I pressed the icon.

 **Building claimed and fully repaired!**

 **Construction Complete!**

 **Construction Complete!**

 **New units /training options now available**

 **Side ops list updated!**

 **Build a Tier 1 base of at least five structures: 3/5 completed**

 **Rewards: ?**

Rewards? First time I heard about them?… I think this game is probably still bugged or still in Alpha or something?

So three of the five structures have been completed, only two more to go. The first three structures focuses on food and agriculture, whilst the last two structures will focus on natural resources and industrialisation. My next few objectives were to build a quarry and a mine to at least acquire stone and iron, in order to build better stuff as the second tier is where things get really interesting for me to start off the early, mid and possibly the late stages of medieval civilisation. A sawmill can be included in on this to build more complicated structures and furniture, although it is not really a critical building I need , but it is on to be considered as I do need a lot of wood and timber.

I then noticed some strange things that I noticed that happened last night, a little while after the buildings were completed and a little while after I summoned the Militia to be exact, according to the notifications log.

'Why am I level 5?' Was what I was wondering about as I read the notifications log, seeing all of the random texts. All of them were saying something about gaining EXP points and earning GMP cash, I had found out that I had a little more than 2,115 GMP in my pocket right now since last night.

'How the hell did I get all of this…unless?' I had a feeling I knew that I knew the answer, but was still unsure about it. I turned towards the maid to ask her.

"Hey, err…Hmm~?" I tried asking her politely and I felt a little bit awkward as I did not even bother asking for her name earlier and I seemed to have forgotten it after I read her bio.

"Alice, my name is Alice of Lier." She introduced herself with a shy smile. "I'm… was from Tristian, until I came here."

I nodded as I made a note to remember her name and to ask her about her former home "Alice …did…anything happen last night?"

Alice noticeably shifted quite uncomfortably at that, but she tried to play it off by tilted her head and placed a finger on her lips, pretending to be in deep thought…at least, trying to be "Well, the buildings are all finished and we saw the new militia and village guardsmen. I was even surprised to see that there were women among them and that there were more women than there were men that rarely happens didn't you know?" she told me with a curious gaze and I only shrugged but nodded, knowing at what she was getting at. It was understandable where she was coming from as what history proves, women had little to no place in the military or other places where men are dominant in certain roles in several societal eras hundreds even thousands of years ago and in other places too. Only a few places in history are exempted from that line of thought, however rare it may be.

"Right…but did anything happen during the night was what I meant, anything strange?"

When I asked her that, her face made a notable twitch and her gaze faltered a bit. "I'... I'm sorry, Master, but… The Loo-ten-ant said she wanted to talk to you about that, she wanted to tell you in person and forbade me from informing you first… I-I-I'll be getting back to work now…I'll be in the Kitchen with Mother… we may not look it but we are pretty good cooks, it just… takes a bit of time to learn everything again…Ok, I'll…see you at breakfast." She mumbled and rushed on downstairs into the Kitchen.

I raised a suspicious brow at her behaviour, she was terrible at hiding her emotions and worse at lying as it was that obvious that something did happen last night and everybody knew it but me.

After getting changed and freshening up and maintaining the bandages as well as I could, I headed downstairs towards the kitchen where I could smell the lovely aroma of cooked fish and some other things that I didn't recognise at first. As I approached the kitchen where the dining table was at, I could see that there were several more dishes included at the table such as a bowel of edible berries and nuts, some edible plants, cooked mushrooms, some cooked birds and a couple of rabbits was what my Observe skill had told me as it levelled up to **Observe - Level 3**

While I was inspecting the food on the table, looking incredibly surprised and impressed by how well prepared it was… well… as well as it could be as it still looked pretty plain as there was an obvious lack of spices and herbs as well as butter, flour and eggs and the only thing we have to make the taste as little bit better was a small box full of salt and sugar. The mother of Alice turned around from the sink and in her hands was a pot of diced fish mixed with mushrooms and other things to make a soup.

"Ah, Master! G-Good morning, I didn't hear you come in." she jumped up in surprise, as if I could hear her apprehension from where I stood.

When I looked over towards Alice's Mother, I discreetly casted observe just to lean the name and what her stats were.

 **Name – Lena of Lier**

 **Level 6**

 **HP – (68/68HP)**

 **MP – (0/0MP)**

 **(Common Unit)**

 **Age – 33**

 **Loyalty – 100% [Absolute] (Big Boss perk)**

 **Morale – 88% (High Spirts)**

 **Mood – Anxious, Safe, happy, dutiful**

 _ **Unit individual Stats:**_

 **Strength - E**

 **Perception: - D**

 **Endurance - E**

 **Charm – D**

 **Intelligence – D**

 **Agility – E**

 **Luck - D**

 **Secondary stats**

 **Magic prowess- F**

 **Unit specialty rank:**

 **Combat - E**

 **R &D (Research and Development) - E**

 **Base Development - D**

 **Support - D**

 **Intel - E**

 **Medical - D**

 **Special Skills:**

 **Cooking, Housekeeping, Sewing, Child rearing, Administration (Potential)**

So her name is Lena… hmm, all this information is a bit much for one unit. Is everybody going to be like that?

"Lena, is it?" I asked her

"Eh!…Ah, Errm…Yes!" she panicked as I called out her name.

"Calm down, it's nothing serious. I just want to know, did anything happen last night?"

"…Well… The leader of the militia has told me to let you know that she is waiting for you by the forest where the hunting cabin's been completed." She said rather meekly for a 33 year old mother.

"Is there a reason why you're being so secretive?" I said semi-seriously

She averted her gaze, but bravely she refused to answer "She says that she will inform you herself."

I sigh at her and to an extent Misaki's insistence that I walk all the way over to where my lieutenant is believed to be at to receive a proper and informative answer, so I relented and nodded as I accepted a cup of water that was brought in by Alice as well as picking up a fresh and wild fruit off of the table that I just noticed.

"Where did you find this?" I referred to the wild apple in my hand?

"We found it by luck… this place used to have an Orchard here once, just by the edge of the forest. It's Lucky for us, they're fresh." Lena answered with a smile.

"Hmm~" I nodded and hummed at the same time as I loosened the bandages around my mouth to take a bite out of the apple. "Mmm~!" I nodded at the taste. "I don't know why, but this is the best apple I've tasted so far… must be the air around here." I mused to myself as I took another bite out of the apple and turned to leave the house with my cup of water in the other hand.

As I walked out the front floor, I felt the early morning sunray's warming me up despite the cold northern winds biting through my bandages. My HUD, which I subconsciously brought up, had told me that it was 9:07AM. Not the time I usually wake up, At times it's much later than that, sometimes I wake up in the early afternoons if I was that exhausted.

It was the time I wanted to wake up as I could get some shit done if I started bright and early like some farmers do, but they get up way earlier than this.

I looked towards the outskirts of the village to the south west to see that the farm had indeed been completed where all the farmland and the farmyard looked neat and tidy without all of the overgrowth of weeds and plants and all the rotten wood making it unusable.

I mentally selected the farm and the whole layout of the farm appeared in front of me. So far, there were only three Felds available for use, some of the fields will be selected for the crops while the other fields will hold the cattle or other animals that I would require. There was also a barn that had been raised to house my animals and farm equipment.

The farm animals have their own uses besides meat, such as the cows and the chickens that could provide me with Milk and eggs, while the sheep can provide me with natural wool grown from their hides.

The crops that I could summon via the farm were pretty basic at first. I first started off with the basic food crops that were Wheat and potatoes to start off with. Then I had another crop that I could use that was called cotton. Cotton is a crop used to produce cotton materials for clothes. Since the people that I summoned from this world only have their poor clothes that were rags at this point and they pretty much had nothing else to change into. The same goes for the wool as they needed warm clothes for the colder weather.

I didn't need any new clothes as I could just summon some new ones in, and I could provide my summons with new clothes, but it gets tiresome if I constantly overuse it.

So after I inspected the farm, I summoned the necessary amount of crops needed that came in sacks of seeds as well as the animals that were 1 rooster and 4 chickens, 1 ram and 4 sheep, 1 bull and 4 cows that were pretty much summoned from abandoned fields or they escaped from captivity so they either came in dirt cheap or free of charge. The rate at which crops and animals that reaches maturity is vastly increased by my ability.

The Crops will reach maturity in around 20 days for wheat, 25 days for cotton and 31 days for potatoes, so I will be able to harvest each and every one of them just under a month. Oddly enough, the gestation period is reduced to around 71 days for cows, 36 days for sheep and 15 days for chickens. Even weirder, the ability that the farm gives off to them passively, also affects the same time needed to reach sexual maturity for each of the animals. So I will be able to harvest crops every month, and the number of animals especially the chickens will be doubled or tripled every month as well so I didn't have to waste any more money in buying or summoning them until I had to keep the birth rate down if the game system has a command for that I wonder?

Bearing in mind, these were wild cattle that escaped captivity, stolen or were abandoned so their quality will undoubtedly be questionable on purchase. Buying a cow was not cheap for instance as the price for 1 healthy dairy cow was at 2,500 GMP. A bull used for breeding more cows will cost me… 3000GMP. But since these cows were taken from the wild or recovered from their previous captivity, and are not on any markets or owned by farming establishments, their prices dropped massively to 200-500GMP or were even lower than that or perhaps free.

All of them were pretty cheap, but like the people I summoned, they were not healthy and were all pretty malnourished. Not a problem, since the farm will be taking care of them in that regard and providing them with fresh water and food, they will recover in no time due to the building's passive healing abilities and their quality will increase overtime and perhaps they may get in the mood to bree-…Erm…Populate the farm once they are healthy again?

As soon as I summoned in the animals, I was right on the moneny that they were in such a poor state of condition. The cows and the bull were incredibly malnourished and the bull had very little muscle on him. The sheep and the ram were underweight and sick judging by their woollen coats having bald patches and covered in dirt and fungus that made it look green and yellow and very lumpy. The chickens were in a similar state as they looked underweight and their feathers were in tatters leaving several bald patches, but they had some sort of pox developing around their faces and something oozing out of their beaks. And all of the animals had the shakes.

"Oh, you poor things." now I felt bad for them. There was simply no way I could put them to use as who knows what sort of infections and diseases they are suffering from. They needed to be well looked after before I could get something in return from them. Perhaps I could get a vet, maybe? But still, their infections could lessen or disappear with a few good days rest along with some food and water, and then they should be pretty much fine or a bit healthier once all that is done.

After I sent them to the barns to rest whilst I had people to give them food which was basic grass, seeds, and water, I mused to myself at the benefits of having a functional farm 'Hmm…So in just under a month, I should be able to have enough food and materials to support about a hundred people or more. I think 18 more peoples should do it for now as I have enough food right now for them. I will need more people to support the farm and to construct more buildings as I will need a Sawmill to cut and shape the wood, masonry as well as a quarry for the stone and a mine and a smithy for the metals. I will also need to start building those homes for the residents as I can't support them all in my home for much longer than I need to other than temporary housing and I need to start thinking about my soldiers more, they may be constructed, but they're still human.' I mused to myself.

As I was musing to myself, I subconsciously told myself that I should head on over to the hunter's cabin and inspect it. Also to see what the whole silent treatment was all about.

On the way there, I caught something at the outskirts of the salvaged houses beside one of the abandoned houses that looked quite off as I spotted an arrow with a blotch of fresh blood staning the wood work, a little chunk of flesh hanging off it as well as bits of grey dried hair and bone hanging off it around the area where the arrow landed into rotten wood post that was barely holding up a rotten and deteriorating fence.

 **Your** **Observe** **skill has levelled up by 1**

 **[Observe] level 4**

"Whose blood is this?" I said to myself as inspected the flesh and blood.

 **Monster blood**

 **Species - [Unknown]**

 _ **This blood is different from human blood as it looks like black gunk, or a really dark shade of red that looks almost as if it was dyed black. The blood and flesh smells rotten and rancid…yet you feel as if it belonged to something…evil.**_

I don't know what that description meant or what it implied, but something was definitely here and it's threatening my village.

I needed answers as I marched all the way to the Hunter's cabin.

As I arrived I saw a decently sized log cabin with a shed by the side that stores up excess logs and wooden materials such as sticks that are not currently being used waiting to be transported to a sawmill when I get round to it. It also came equipped with two carts that either a horse or a man could pull that is used for transportation to and from the Hunter's Cabin towards any location where a building is being constructed or perhaps to a storage room in the basement or a warehouse.

Inside the cabin, it was filled with equipment and tools used to cut down trees. The sawmill will have the necessary equipment used to cut and trim the logs into timber used for construction and also be used for furniture.

Whilst I was visibly pleased by the results as my workers had taken the initiative to try out and test the new woodcutter's equipment and tools and they already filled the storage sheds with logs as well as the carts.

But the thing that got my attention was a bit further on to my right as I smelt something rotten and burning that was coming from a clearing in the forest that was close by, just behind some bushes. I quickly walked over to the bushes and pushed them out the way as I stepped through, and what greeted me was a sight of an aftermath of what appeared to have been a battle…or a slaughter.

The bodies were already gone, but the blood, arrows, crossbow bolts, weapons, and bits of flesh were all of what's left behind as the only evidence pointing towards a bloody fight that occurred here. The smoke was coming from a fair distance away coming from a recently dug up pit where there was once a fire raging inside.

I stood there with my eyes wide open… if didn't had my Gamer's mind passive on, I would've been in stone cold shock instead of feeling a bit surprised by the carnage "What the fuck?...Misaki!" I yelled out for my aide was not currently present at where she should be.

Waiting for a few moments for an answer or if she were to turn up, I heard something shift and muffled up noises. I turned my head to the right and spotted a tree with some rope wrapped around it tightly. There, as I walked around it… was a familiar, yet ugly little green creature completely bound and gagged by the tree.

"A Goblin?" I frowned a bit as I saw what appeared to be a stereotypical form of goblin that you would normally see from anime and manga formats such as Goblin Slayer being the closest representation of its looks. It almost looked as if it was about the size of a child between 6-11 years old, Its skin colour was dark green, it had a crooked face and jagged yet rotting teeth that had a few chips in it, it was incredibly ugly and it smelt really bad.

It wore what appeared to be a loin cloth that covered his private parts, and a crudely made leather cloak with a patched up hood that had seen better days, that apparently was yesterday.

While the goblin was already ugly, it looked to have been badly beaten and tortured into a bloody pulp.

The goblin opened its eyes and turned towards me before it started panicking and thrashing around in his bonds. It seemed like it wanted to say something to me.

I then reached behind its head and undid the cloth gag around it's mouth and removed it.

The Goblin took a breath of air in and it started to blubber incomprehensible words at me.

" _ **Y-Y-Y-Ya gatta He-He_Helth …Helth be!"**_

I think It was trying to say help me, but his bruised lip was giving him a nasty lisp and disfigured speech… but I was curious about something first.

"What happened here? Who did this to you?"

" **I…I…were…part obv… scoutin…grew-puh…we were…own-we cur-we-us** " he tried to pronounce with shaky breaths and a butchered speech. " _ **We…ambooshed…by…yer…peepul…we…did…nutin…wong**_ …" the goblin managed to cough out.

So apparently this goblin was part of a scouting party, and when they arrived they were ambushed…by my militia who I told to defend and patrol the area…and they somehow translated it from "Defend and patrol the area" into "Kill anything that so much trespasses into my land"…..yeah, I'll be having words with them alright.

Suddenly, a knife just sunk not the bark of the tree right next to the goblins own neck, just missing him by a couple of inches.

" _ **HIII!"**_ the goblin squealed like a frightened pig, and as i looked down I saw a puddle spreading out from between his legs and his loincloth was stained by an obvious wet patch that that stunk heavily of piss.

"Mmm!" I made a disgusted hum as I stood up and moved a few paces away from the goblin and turned to face Misaki who threw the knife as if to silence the goblin who was pleading to me.

" **Hooman!, cwazy wooman mad!…Her kill awll of my bwothers!…you tawk!…you stawp!...Her Hear You!"** it screeched as it thrashed its legs around pounding on the ground as if it wanted to flee, but couldn't. The creature was pleading/begging to me into talking some sense into my subordinate as she will only listen to me.

"Misaki, what was that for? Is what this goblin is saying true?" I at least had the sense and courtesy to at least hear both sides of the conflicted.

"Do not listen to this… **thing** , Master... I mean, Boss-Sama. This abomination's side of the story doesn't even cover most of their wretched reasons for coming here. Trespassing into your land without permission was one crime they committed that can be forgiven depending on the reason and when you are informed, but it was not the worst thing they tried here." She said it so coldly, filled with malice and hostile contempt for the little green creature. "It's cries and pleas are of that of a mad, wounded savage animal, all of their kind are the same as him despite it's apparent intelligence in this one."

"Care to enlighten me on what they tried, Misaki?" I asked her, feeling that I needed to hear what's on her side of the story to explain the obvious hostility she was showing to the goblin.

She nodded and began her side of the story of the entire event that took place last night.

* * *

 **(Last night)**

The moon was out in the early hours of midnight and the workers were still up and about working late. They made a pretty decent headway into the construction projects for the new hunting cabin and the complete renovation of the abandoned farm

The workers were all provided with torches to illuminate their working areas so they could continue working on through the night, despite the moonlight producing enough light to illuminate the whole area, but not by much.

Once they were nearly finished, they all decided to gather some food for tomorrow. They didn't really need to, but they all wanted to do their bit to at least repay their master's kindness and they all wanted breakfast for tomorrow as well.

They recently met with the newly recruited militia, although they were slightly intimidated by their presence at first, they at least felt safer knowing that they are around to protect them, another thing to thank their master for.

The leader of the Militia, Misaki, granted them permission to gather some food throughout the night, but only for an extra hour as she wanted them all back in the house before 1AM. She also provided them with guards to watch over the group and to patrol the village and the cabins.

They sorted it out amongst themselves as to who gets what job. The hunters were tasked in creating traps to at least capture rabbits and small critters, another group will be tasked with fishing next to the river and another group will be tasked with finding plants, fruits and berries from the local wildlife.

While they were given clear instructions to not wander off too far, some of the workers tend to forget and get too engrossed into their jobs that they sometimes wander off too far from the group.

One of which landed herself into trouble.

It was one of the summoned female workers who used to be a farmer's daughter before her farm and family butchered, her home destroyed and razed by bandits a few months ago where she lost everything, ending up with her inheritance to go bankrupt and worthless whilst the local lord refused to do anything about it and that ruined her completely as she suspected that he was the one who sent those bandits in the first place. His reasons were probably asinine and for no reason, because he may as well have admitted that he disliked them or considered their farm an eyesore on his land, or for a favour for one of their rivals to take out their main competitor.

Having nowhere to go and hitting rock bottom, she was nearly on the edge until she heard this calling.

A bright light circle surrounded her by her feet and a rune suddenly engraved itself onto her forehead, signifying that she had been chosen for a second chance in life. A chance she did not regret.

However, she still had a long way to go to at least prove herself to her merciful, kind and benevolent lord/ Master.

But something was out there watching her, eying her like a piece of meat waiting to be ravished.

A bit further away, located in the bushes were the distinct yet faint chatter of a language foreign to most humans, but a language known to be crude, savage and dark. There were whispers, cackles, and inhuman shrieks, all talking to one another. These voices belonged to a savage race of goblins belonging to a tribe located further south in the great forest closer to the mountains.

The voices were all evenly spread out in the forest with a clear view of the village and the important looking house on the hill

The voices sounded confused and a bit agitated. Unsure as to why and how a village had been quickly set up and why there were humans settling there? Another voice informed them of its findings and sharing out it's knowledge and what else it saw inside the village.

It turns out that some of the goblins had found out who the leader was, a man in bandages who they call the cloth man. The Goblin party that observed him informed them all that he looked pretty weak and sickly, although they didn't kill him even though they had every chance to. Therefore, they didn't consider him as a threat worthy of notice and just ignored him.

Not long ago, they were certain that there were no threats in the village to oppose them. The villagers themselves looked pretty harmless and weak, so they thought it would be a cinch in raiding this village and taking their women, food, and livestock for themselves.

How wrong they soon were.

One of the goblins soon caught a straggler quite far away from the party as it snuck up on her and tackled her to the ground. The woman collapsed onto the floor and as soon as she realised what tackled her, she tried to scream for help. The goblin only jumped on her and pressed a crude iron dagger pressing against her throat as it used it's other hand to make a shushing gesture against its lips.

It cackled in a sadistic delight as well as sniffing her and licking it's lips lecherously like a beast in heat. It laughed as the woman started crying as it sniffed her neck and trying to struggle but failing as the goblin overpowered the weak woman under the goblin as it brought it's hand to rip off her rag dress to ravage her chest.

Just before it could, the goblin felt a large hand grasping onto the back of its neck, firmly.

" **Eh?"** the goblin blinked for a brief second until…

 ***Crack!***

" **Bleugh!** " the goblin managed to cough out before his spinal cord severed from the forceful tug as he managed to catch a glimpse of the one who did it to him. To his shock… the one who snapped his neck was a beast of a man, very tall and built like a battle hardened orc. He then felt another tug and his head suddenly came straight off as it tore off with ease, spinal cord still attached to the head.

The poor young woman couldn't hold it in any longer and lost her nerve as she screamed in fright to the whole area.

* * *

The goblins were soon alerted by the scream that had also alerted the humans they were watching to their positions, thus they had to move in fast if they were to get them all before they could prepare or escape.

The goblin Shaman and scout party leader, snarled at the error that costed them the element of surprise that was no doubt squandered by one of his idiotic underlings.

" _ **Go! Kill every last one of them! raze their homes to ashes and take their women and food for ourselves!"**_

The whole party of 46 goblins let out an inhuman war cry that was more like a screech than anything as well as the goblin priest/shaman gave out the orders to invade.

As soon as the first goblin burst through the treeline and into the open meadow as it was going to make a beeline straight towards the village on all fours and sprint all the way towards the settlement to slaughter those defenceless humans, the very same goblin was then suddenly launched back into the woods with great speed and crashed into the tree where the shaman goblin was standing by giving his orders with a mighty wet smack.

" _ **What the…!?"**_

The shaman inspected the goblin that slammed against the tree and noticed that the skull was crushed in by a club of sorts with studs embedded into it, judging by the small indents of holes piercing into the skull.

"This village is off limits…for the likes of you." A dep threatening baritone voice was heard as a giant of a man standing at 6'5packed with muscle stepped out of the shadows through some bushes with what appeared to be a large club with metal studs embedded into it hefted onto his shoulders. His armour was mostly reinforced leather armour over a cloak like coat that reached his thighs and a hood and face cloth covering his entire head.

The thing that scared the rest of the few goblins n the clearing the most, was the way his eyes glimmered in the dark. It was like staring into the eyes of a blood thirsty predator, stalking its helpless prey.

The shaman too, while hesitant, shook himself out of his fear and yelled out to his underlings. " _ **What you miserable sods waiting for!? It's just one cunt, gut 'im!"**_ it screeched out to the goblins and they all started to act a bit more bravely as they all raised their custom, salvaged and crude like weapons at the stranger and they all charged at the stranger a few at a time.

Some of them leaped through the air, only to be swatted aside by a mighty swing from the stranger's mighty club (Kanabo) with ease. The powerful weapon was indeed mighty, as the strength behind the user caused an explosive effect as the bones where the club hit, shattered around his mid-riff section. His ribs and internal organs were nothing but crumbled and mushed.

Others were then picked off by arrows, crossbow bolts, and javelins that came out from the shadows and in the trees that struck down several of them, interrupting their charge. Their accuracy and power, proving very deadly as several hit them in the heads and torsos, the javelins were strong enough to rip off chunks of flesh as it manged to skim across their flesh and their skulls.

The shaman goblin was beginning to look fearful as the humans were no doubt trained soldiers. This was going to prove very difficult, but he was still pretty confident that he was certain he would win this by number superiority.

But he was then in for a nasty shock as a thin piece of rope dropped down in a noose and hooked itself around his neck, with a quick yank he was then hoisted up into the air by the branch the rope was hung upon with an unknown female armed with twin axes and sandy blonde fringe of hair being noticeable from her hood who was pulling him up towards her.

She was not wearing her face cloth, but she was undoubtedly smirking as he could barely make out the distinct bloodthirsty grinning lips curved up revealing a set of white teeth, mocking him.

"Well~…Look what I've caught here…some savage degenerate that dares to sully our master's land? Know your place, vermin. These are not your lands to raid." She sniggered.

" _ **Vermin!? Wretched hooman! know that I am a great goblin shaman of the Great Goblin Kingdom of Gorokil. You… on our lands!"**_ the shaman protested. " **Your tiny village is no match for our numbers!"** The shaman screeched and choked out his meagre threats and fury to the female warrior.

"These are not your lands anymore, they never have been." The sandy haired woman growled at the pathetic creature before her. "These lands are now owned by our benevolent and great Master, Zachary Crowshaw. Be sure to remember that name as you watch helplessly as we slaughter your followers here of your self-proclaimed kingdom." She glowered at him with a look that just oozed out malice as she wrapped a piece of rope around the shaman's body, constricting his movements and letting him hanging there as the woman then dropped down from her tree branch to land a two hit instant kill by driving both of her twin tomahawks each into the skulls of two goblins and joining in on the chaos.

The shaman watched helplessly as he came to realise that they were so badly outmatched as the skill and power of these warriors were beyond theirs. Goblins were known to be weak and cowardly individually, but their only strengths are only known when there are many of them. They mainly avoid any place that has a strong military presence or is owned by a powerful mage/noble.

So he was then wondering desperately as to why their intelligence was so off about their strength, why did they believe them to be weak and defenceless peasants and farmers when they clearly have a well-trained militia, where did the militia even come from?

The goblin watched from his tree branch, trying to give out orders or try and cry out for help, but his voice was garbled and constricted as the noose dug in tightly around his neck. Coordinating the battle seemed to already be hopeless. One after the other, they were all falling in droves.

Some goblins did manage to escape the forest, but they were then quickly pursued by other militia forces hiding in the trees, armed with longbows that killed them with such accuracy, power and greater distance that outperformed their crude and shoddy bows could ever hope to match.

A few goblins managed to slip by through the trees and quickly made a dash towards the village, hoping to at least acquire something of value or at least kill someone important.

But they too were pursued by archers and ambushed by men carrying polearms and spears. One archer shot an arrow at one goblin that was trying to make a dash towards one of the fleeing summoned girls. Once the arrow was fired, the arrow skimmed the goblin's skull but still taking off a chunk of the goblin's skull and struck a part of the fence.

Once all was lost, the morale of the goblins crumbled and they all desperately tried to flee, but they quickly found themselves encircled and were all gored by men and women wielding long spears and halberds, gutting them all mercilessly with the tips of their weapons and cleaving apart any who tried to escape with their axes and smashing them to bits with their maces, Warhammers, and clubs.

Once the last goblin was slain by a spear thrust through the chest cavity, the forest clearing grew silent and the smell of death permeated the area.

The goblin shaman stared in shock, awe, and terror as he stared at the tragic aftermath of his own underlings and the fate of all his kind had shed upon the dirt of this forest.

The rope holding him up suddenly dropped as somebody cut the rope as he collapsed into a heap.

" **Kuh**! The goblin coughed out as he landed with a face full of dirt and grass. As the goblin shaman coughed out the last piece of dirt in his mouth, it noticed the shadowy presence looming down on him.

Slowly turning his head around, he saw the threatening presence of all of the militia surrounding him, standing closely to him was a woman with jet black hair and the darkest pair eyes he had ever looked into. Eyes filed with such cold malice as it glared callously at him.

"You have a lot of nerve pointing your weapons at our master's land. You dare to threaten his people, to raze his home and rape his people's women… your kind are all guilty and beyond redeeming thus you deserve to be punished, harshly and brutally." She said coldly toward him as she raised her boot and slammed the heel into his face, breaking his nose.

The black haired woman took a step back and nodded to her subordinates and gave the silent order to being his torture.

Without needing any motivation, they eagerly accepted the order and swarmed the little green detestable creature and they hurt him, they hurt him in every bad way they could without killing him. Punching, kicking, slashing…all very minor compared to some of the more…brutal methods.

* * *

As I heard the entire story from her side, I didn't need to listen to any more sides as I knew the general gist of the story without being told otherwise by anyone else.

" **P-Pweash…Helth…be..She…Monsta…"** the little goblin spoke in barely understandable gibberish.

Misaki scowled at the green goblin as it tried to plead for it's life with her master, a fact she was disgusted by "Me?...monster?…Have you looked in a mirror, scum?"

The goblin cowered from her gaze as if threatening to lose control of his bowels this time which it came pretty close.

"Enough," I said, clearly and seriously. "I've heard what I needed to know." I said as I turned towards the goblin and made my way behind him with an unreadable expression on my face (Mostly due to the bandages) and a dull like expression reflecting off my eyes.

I held out my hand and a small Sykes like style knife of a modern 20th-century blade with a wooden handle appeared in my hand. Good thing modern 20th -21st century inspired blades can be summoned and recreated in a fantasy setting with my power as blades are very commonplace in this world.

I knelt down beside the goblin and the goblin looked at me seeing that I had my hand wrapped firmly around the noose behind his neck. "Here, let me get that for you." I said, as I cut away the noose from his neck.

Misaki just gaped in shock as she saw what appeared to be me selflessly and mercifully freeing the goblin that led a failed raid on my village intending to raze it and kidnap the women and steal all of the food we had in our storage. She couldn't comprehend as to why I would help this hateful, evil and savage creature. "M-M-Master! Why are you…why are you helping it!?" she cried out in disbelief. "It intended to destroy all and everything you worked so hard for. All Goblins are like that! They intentionally prey on the weak, they steal from the innocents and they treat anyone and anything that is weaker than them like bloody sport, raping them and throwing them away like garbage after they had their fun! It's their way of life!" she tried to plead her reason with me, but I dismissed her cries. From the sound of it, she was very passionate and held a deep hatred for these creatures.

The goblin sighed in relief as he felt the noose loosen from his neck and he could breathe a little better. **"Th-Thank…You"** it said with what little gratitude it could muster.

"Tell me." I muttered out, loud enough for the Goblin and Misaki to hear.

"Hm?" The Goblin looked up into my shadowy eyes that I displayed no emotion.

"Did any Goblin manage to escape? Were there any survivors among any of you?"

The goblin flinched as I asked him that " **N-No…I…last…surviror…de rest…all killed.**

The silence hung heavily after he said that. The goblin soon regretted looking back up to see the look in my eyes just morph into something dangerous.

"…. _ **Good"**_ it heard me murmur under my breath.

* **Shink!***

" **Gughh!"** it gargled and choked on its own blood as I sank my blade into this creature's unprotected neck without the noose in the way so it allowed me to have a clear shot right at his jugular vein.

Misaki's reaction was one that took her by surprise as she witnessed her Master just murder the Goblin Shaman in cold blood, and he didn't even interrogate him for information, not that he needed to… or wanted to.

"You think this is fun? To prey on the innocent like some sort of game? And you thought you could pretend to be innocent and cower in the dirt like some dumb animal when you are responsible for spilling the blood of the many innocent people you slaughtered on your hands? Don't think you could try and fool me! For what you tired to take from me, I'll take my anger and fury on all of you a hundred fold. I want you and the rest of your wretched kind to die in fear and pain, for what you tried to take from me and other innocents that have fallen victim to your kind." I whispered darkly into its ear as I watched the light fade from his eyes and it struggled less and less.

"Go, Fade away into nothingness. And once you are there, know that this doesn't stop with just your death. More of your kind will follow after you and so will others who dare to bare their fangs and point their weapons against me and my people." I growled at the now dead corpse bleeding out in my grasp as I removed the blade from its neck and flicked the blackish blood and cleaned it on the surface of the grass.

As I got up, I walked over to Misaki and stopped by her side. Her expression was still one of surprise. I knocked her out of her stupor as I grasped onto her shoulder. She looked over to me and looked into my eyes where she could see that here was a fire ignited in them, a visage of fury.

"Train the villagers… You and every other personnel must teach them with whatever knowledge you know about. Weapons, martial arts, tactics, survival, crafting, whatever needs to be taught, you cram all that knowledge into their heads.

As for future threats to this village, start patrolling the forests and any goblin you find trespassing on our lands…take them out. I'm going to need to start expanding my village more quickly than I expected and I expect you to start organising for more militia or other forces to be trained and ready for combat at any notice. Got that?" I said in a tone with dead seriousness that made her shiver.

Her lips then raised slightly into a grin and she snapped a firm salute that she gladly gave to me. "Hai! Master!"

I nodded and went on my way back to my house, plans already circulating in my mind.

* * *

As I reached my office, I slammed myself on the desk and groaned to myself.

'Well…That was **fucked,** in every sense of the word.' I pressed both of palms together against my face.

So I now learn that I am now under potential threat of a Goblin invasion…fucking perfect! But…they were the ones to start it, and now I'm very pissed off and I will be the one to bloody well finish it.

However, I did not expect myself to react like…well, that! I didn't know I had it in me.

I was not ready for this, but I made my declaration very clear when I stabbed that Goblin in the throat…oh Jesus…I really killed someone/something…well, not exactly…I more or less put down a rabid animal than a sentient being… but it was pretty intelligent to me as it could speak. However, Misaki informed me that only the goblin shamans/priests, champions, hobgoblins and goblin kings are intelligent enough to speak the common language, the rest of the goblins are only as intelligent as the common orcs and they're pretty much the equivalent to rabid beasts and wild animals in terms of behaviour. The only difference between them both was that orcs were aggressive war mongers and the goblins were likewise very violent, but they were more or less scavengers and raiders than actual war bands and only target most people who they believe to be weaker than they are just for simple sport.

But still…to just, callously take a life like that, and not feel anything by it?...This Gamer's mind passive power is quite scary, to just…kill without hesitation holding me back.

Well, on another note, my constructed personnel proved to be a massive boon towards my military capabilities, case in point the way they handled he situation. The downside, they were major fanatics about me as I had recently discovered.

Why they were all so zealous about me was that they see me as some sort of…God, that I created them into existence?… If you think about that for sec, you'll realise that particular thought is a very dangerous one around here, especially if I were closer to the mainland or worse, in Romalia's holy capital. The summoned personnel were tamer however, but they were still just as bad as they see me as some sort of messiah or saviour sent from the heavens.

Worse still…their behaviour around me is quite disturbing…Well…it was more the constructs than the summoned.

But if I were to be honest here…They. Were. Dangerous!

Seriously, they had slaughtered the goblins with ease, and without breaking a sweat nor did they hesitate or falter in their task. Mind you, the goblins were little more than a violent mob compared to the organised, well equipped and trained constructed militia as their foes. I have a feeling that they're going to be a really dangerous and deadly foe against any enemy I make, or myself if I'm not careful.

Their devotion, loyalty and their dependence of me is pretty much steel clad at 100% right now or more, there is nothing that can deter their loyalty to me now due to the Big Boss perk. And I've pretty much given the game system free reign to make the decisions in character creations for me, which also means personality wise, looks and abilities will also be chosen by the system. Which also explains why my constructed personnel look more like Olympic athletes, MMA fighters, and supermodels than a common or average soldier/personnel.

Anyways, after that incident, I gave several orders to my workers and informed them that they are to construct a sawmill by the river upstream, as we are going to need defensive structures as soon as possible, as well as a quarry in order for me to construct my smithy.

I also summoned 20 more militia with the same ranks as last time, 2 A ranks, 4 B ranks and 14 C ranks from privates to corporals and then sergeants. This small platoon is tasked with scouting the forest for enemy positions and also to search for resources such as iron ore, or if possible, copper ore and maybe but highly doubtful... gold ore.

They were armed with wat little iron I could spare them as I salvaged more houses with my ability that reclaimed all small pieces of metal inside them, but mostly they were arms with mostly wooden blunt melee weapons that ranged from medium weight to heavy weight, crossbows, longbows, spears, and heavy wooden round shields I armed them with to tackle the threat of the roaming goblins in the forest.

The first small platoon will stay and guard the village and to also train up my villagers to which I've summoned several more of them, 10 to be exact.

First, I got the workers to work mostly on the farms, as I've bought several sacks of wheat and cotton seeds and potatoes to grow in several fields. The fields were not very big, but it will fill up our food supply and cotton demand exponentially.

The animals will have to recover for a few days before I start gathering milk and eggs from them, the wool will have to come later as it is too mouldy to collect right now.

The hunters will get started on hunting and trap making around the forest, mostly they started small as in they made rabbit traps like cages and rope traps where the knowledge was provided to them via the command centre. With a bit of practice, they soon got the hang of crafting and trap making. Soon, they would return with an abundance of rabbit meat and pelt.

The hunters were then given some equipment, armour, and weapons for hunting and for their own protection, thus I summoned for them some hunting gear like a hunter's bow, arrows, a medieval crossbow with some bolts and even a non-lethal bolt with a blunt edge used for shooting down birds and a few sharpened spears.

Because animal pelts were an alternative source of clothing, I requested to them that they can use them as a source of warm clothing as well as for the other summoned people until I provide them with more appropriate clothing, especially with the colder weather and temperatures approaching.

Is it just me or does it feels like autumn? Now that I think about it, Familiar of Zero did start off in the spring with the familiar summoning ritual, so that means that I'm probably a couple of months behind canon. But how far is it into the civil war in Albion, down south?

Well, it doesn't really matter right now as I have bigger problems more worth my time. Where was I? Oh yeah! Fishing, is our primary source of food and one of our main sources as fishing around the river was very bountiful indeed that requires little effort, if you were to just set up several fishing lines in the river and keep watch. Hunting for game in the forests on the other hand requires a bit more skill.

I also sectioned off some of the wild fruit trees with fences and set up a zone where the tree orchards were in my farm's influence zone. That means I get a fresh supply of apples once a week, and these apples were always ripe, fresh and juicy when hand plucked… I could make a business out of this.

Houses were my secondary objective, now that I've included more citizens to my small village, but I was a bit iffy about space and resources. So I had to settle for making them 1 story dormitory/barracks-style houses that can shelter 16 people at once, but making them more…homely. It also comes with a living room, several bathrooms and restrooms and a large kitchen and storage room. The bedrooms were large and they contain several bunkbeds and the rooms are shared between gender, male on the west side of the building and the females on the east. It also contains its own water supply and perks similar to my command centre that refreshes itself, but it was very limited. The bathroom had to be single because of spacing and the kitchen and dining was very spacious.

After all of my workers and personnel set off to do their jobs and tasks, I was left alone to my own musings as I sat in my office looking over my stats screen. There was the apparent dilemma of wondering what to do with all of these points that I've now earned through an outside source connected through me.

Health points – 45/90(-50% Health)

Mana points – 1100/1100 MP

Stats:

Strength - 4

Vitality - 8

Dexterity - 15

Intelligence - 30

Wisdom - 23

Luck – 7

Available stat points 25

So as I found out, every level up I gain 5 HP and 50 MP per level, but as you can still see… my health situation is still appalling.

So for appointing which place for me to invest my points in, I decided to focus mainly on strength and vitality.

Six points into strength and two into Vitality. Since Intelligence and Wisdom were high enough, I wasn't really that fussed about them for now. Luck I decided to invest three points just for the hell of it. and that left me with 3 three points…more vitality it is then.

So after a short session of slamming down some points in my choice of stats, it went out like this.

 **Health points** – 75/150(-50% Health)

 _Mana points_ – 1100/1100 MP

 **Stats** :

 **Strength** \- 10

 **Vitality** \- 11

 **Dexterity** \- 15

 **Intelligence** \- 30

 **Wisdom** \- 23

 **Luck** – 10

 **Available Stat points 10**

There we go…I am now a little bit tankier, but still pretty crap. I decided to at least spare some points for later, so that I'm certain on what I should or want to be spending my points on.

So now I've got that out of the way, I was wondering what I should do for myself. Individually, I was weak, very weak.

I had no combat experience and the only thing I gained was **Knife Mastery** from me killing that goblin shaman earlier.

Naturally, I could just sit back and let my personnel do all of the work as what they gain in EXP and money, I also gain… which didn't really sit well with me. No matter how much they urge me not to take part in combat, I still want in on the action and they can't stop me. If I want to learn skills then I have to do it personally other than having skills transferred over to me, but it can still be taught to me.

 ***Dun!***

The notifications icon blared and I selected it to see what the fuss was about.

I blinked as I received some good news.

"Oh, an abandoned mine has been discovered…yes! And it has some left over iron ore. Get in!" I did a fist pump as I jumped off my seat and left the room in a hurry to meet with the scouting team that was returning back to base with a delivery of iron ore.

Things were coming along nicely as I also gave a mental command in constructing a smithy to some of the workers that were either available or were not doing much.

* * *

Several hours later and both the sawmill and the smithy was finally completed.

I stood outside of the smithy and poked my head in and wafting the fresh air of newness from the building into my nostrils that smelt like opening a fresh game out of the package kind of feeling. Inside you have everything you would expect from a medieval blacksmith.

Anvils, Hammers, tongs, forges, Blacksmith overalls, everything.

I also checked the new sawmill by the river, and that had everything I expected including this big ass saw connected to the water mill used to saw giant logs in half, like the one in Skyrim in the village of Riverrun.

 **Side ops list updated!**

 **Mission Complete**

 **Build a Tier 1 base of at least five structures: 5/5 completed**

 **Reward: 300EXP - 2000GMP- 1 random ? rank Personnel card**

I blinked at the last reward.

A random rank unit drop? Hmm, so it could be either good or bad? Misaki was only…What, A++ in Intel as it is her strongest suit with Combat being her second?

What the hell kind of unit will I even get?" I wondered as I accepted the rewards and I felt the warmth of experience flow through me and the cash filling my wallet/pocket dimension. The card that had the mystery somthing rank personnel was contained in a package that you can just peel open of the top. The package itself reminded me of those card packages you get when buying Pokémon cards back in the day or like opening those Rainbow six siege alpha packs, it's like those.

As much as I don't care about those similar but stupid alpha packs in games, it's kind of making me tense and a little bit excited I will admit.

So I grabbed the edge of the pack and peeled the seal off and reached inside of the package as I took out the card.

 **X1 S rank unit!**

 **Merchant**

 **Name: unknown**

 **Combat** – B

 **Research and Development** – A

 **Base development** – B

 **Support** – S

 **Intel** A+

 **Medical** – B

 _ **Skills**_ _– Trading, Bartering, Haggling, Charm, Silver tongue, Quality Control (item Quality appraisal skill), Bargain hunter (Finding the best items under cheap prices) Black Market (Able to acquire and sell the rarest and questionable/stolen or legal/illegal goods for a fair price and undetected from authority)._

I blinked a couple of times just to re-adjust to what I was seeing as I looked at the stats on this guy. An S rank merchant!? On paper, it didn't really sound all that impressive, but when I had a look at this guy in person as he stepped out of the command centre after the light dissipated, boy was I in for a bit of a pleasant surprise and I will admit…a bit of a nerdgasm.

"Afternoon, Boss!" there he was, the one and only…" **The Merchant** "…you know? From resident Evil 4?...that Merchant. It was kind of a bit of a let-down that he didn't refer me as "Strangeh" like he does with Leon Kennedy, but he at least he speaks it in the same gravelly voice and accent but in a more familiar and friendly sense.

"….Eh?" I was standing right in front of my command centre just gaping at this dude. "Wait, hold on!...There's no way you're that person, right?"

"Who else do you see other than a guy wearing a beat up hooded trench coat and a purple bandana and carrying a big fuck off rucksack filled with all kinds of merchandise. I'm pretty sure I'm the real deal, boss." It spoke in a slippery but harsh and rough silver tongue that he possessed.

I blinked a couple of times and just nodded, saying nothing else…just accepting it. "Alright, so finding out that my power can also summon characters from games and possibly fictional material aside. What can you do?"

The merchant only chuckled and…wait for it. "Got something that might interest ya" there it is! He displayed all his wares as he whipped open his left side of the trench coat, revealing the inside content of all sorts of merch he had on offer.

Blades, knives, firearms, bombs, ammunition, he had it all.

"Ohhh!~" I leaned forward for a closer look, browsing his wares with keen interest. The items he was selling seemed to be items that I can acquire before and during the year 1650 and even weapons that were a bit afterwards, so I was obviously interested in the firearms. I then spotted something that I was interested in, because I was stuck in the period where flintlocks were becoming a thing and it was starting to overshadow the obsolete matchlock firearms, I was bit pleased to see that there was a flint lock pistol I could potentially buy. Its date of creation was in the mid-1700s and it was a British navy sea service pistol.

"Nice! How much to unlock this?" I pointed at the pistol

"55,000GMP" he stated.

I blinked at the price and looked at the pistol in question"…I think I'll pass on that."

I then noticed that Misaki had snuck up behind me as she was also interested in what the Merchant was selling. She was staring intently at some of the Japanese Katanas, eyeing them with sparkles shimmering from her eyes. "How much for those?" she pointed at a master crafted twin set of katanas.

"550,000GMP, each" he simply spoke.

I did a spit take at the price that that, as did Misaki as she had a bit of a crestfallen look and sulked a bit as she looked at her own hand of money that she earned through slaughtering those goblins, realsising that she was nowhere near. "Jesus Christ! That much for a blade!? While the pistol is 55,000GMP!?" I objected to that.

"It's based on historical value for that blade and quality. This is a blade owned once by a famous wandering samurai back in the 1600s, well known in fact in that time. The pistol while they are…fairly common in this world, are actually pretty expensive to make and the demand is not very high at the moment."

"And you somehow acquired this blade from his corpse or something, wherever you got this from?"

He then pointed to a label that was stitched into the linen on the inside of his coat. It read out " **All items on display are replicas, please ask The Merchant for more info on these products and consult with him on whether you want to buy or sell."** I read out and immediately frowned.

Then a though struck me "Wait a minute, since you are aligned to me via summoning, yet you are charging me for these products that are in your possession? Am I missing something here or are you hoarding some of this stuff for yourself and exploiting all this somehow?"

"Not hidin anything from ya, boss, I'm just a simple honest tradesman. The items I own can only be purchased and acquired directly through a pocket dimension that can only be retrieved through the exchange of money and in return, you gain your desired items, simple no?" he simply explained with a shrug.

'That to me no matter how it's worded, it sounded almost like an excuse' I couldn't bring myself to disagree with his logic, but I believed him anyway "So what? You're my personal merchant that I can buy exclusively from you?" I asked with a sceptical look on my face.

"Well, that and also set up or take over businesses elsewhere. I'm also an S rank businessman too, y'know. If you have things to sell, you can bring them to me and I'll take em off your hands and take em to places where the demand is high where I can sell those goods you gave me there. The more they pay me through each goods and wares I sell, the more money you earn through third party means where the money is transferred directly into your total GMP amount." The merchant explained.

I blinked and gaped at the sound of that, this unit was undoubtedly a useful unit for economic development. "So…you can go out there and set up any businesses? Can you do that now?"

"To dangerous out there, boss…I don't really know my way out here. I can however buy anything you have as of now for a bit of money, but it's rather pointless as you'll never see them again or put to use until I sell them to another customer. Think of it like retuning games back to your local game shop and they give you a measly sum of cash that's barely scratching the surface of the price you bought the game at.

Trust me, it's more worth it if you actually sell the goods to real people where you can set the selling prices to however you like it to be, whether they be reasonable, cheap or overpriced to that one asshole you don't like. Plus you can haggle and convince real people into handing more money over that you can't with a gaming system." He further explained and I was more sold with this guy.

"Well…are there other things that I can buy off you?

"HEHEHE! Why don't ya take a look, boss?"

As soon as he said that, a menu popped up and I could see two options and the name of his buinsess.

 **The Merchant Express**

 **Your No 1 merchant for weapons, armour, magic, skills, personnel, and items that you cannot get anywhere else, no matter the world you are in.**

 **Are you?**

 **BUYIN** **/ SELLIN**

'Snort! The irony…" I mused to myself humorously.

I looked throughout all of the section I could buy from.

 **Weapons:**

 **Armour:**

 **Items/resources:**

 **Food:**

 **Vehicles:**

 **Personnel:**

 **Miscellaneous:**

Other than maybe a few resources or weapon schematics I could buy and unlock, I was really more looking into acquiring more personnel.

So I looked into personnel to see who I could get for a good price.

After browsing through the menu for a bit, even though the selection was not much to look at, but there were some definite choices for me to pick straight away.

 **X1 A rank Doctor**

 **X1 A rank Engineer**

Okay, I will admit, these two did knock my money down a bit, but I will say this that it was money well spent.

The doctor is to no surprises female who stood at 5'7, with blonde swept back hair reaching down to her neck line and two bangs levelled just above her cheek bones and violet eyes. She also wore professional looking glasses that give off the mature business like woman with a white doctor's coat a tube like top and business skirt, black tights and practical boots. She will be responsible for everybody's health and tending to their sickness and their injuries, what also helps is that she is also a skilled and knowledgeable veterinarian also, which is part of the reason why I wanted her.

The Engineer had chestnut brunette with dark brown eyes who was a 5'10 male built with muscle. This man is very skilled in construction, but I wanted him because he has skills in defensive structures and also reinforcing buildings which is a special skill he has. He also has a passive skill that increases the build time of every nearby worker. So he would be a natural team leader for all of the workers and he could promote people to the engineer class. He's also a pretty skilled combat engineer too, if it came down to it, he will know how to fight back when under pressure from hostile threats.

I looked at my total GMP and sighed.

 **22'364GMP**

I was running low on funds. From here on out, I will need to rely on raw materials instead of buying them.

No matter, I have all the personnel I need and right now…I had the option to go on to the next tier.

 **Would you like to upgrade to tier II?**

 **Y** **/N**

'Was there any doubt?' I thought to myself as I pressed yes without hesitation.

 **New construction options available!**

 **Barracks**

 **Units:**

 **Light infantry:**

 _Militia – 50GMP_

 _Ranger – 120GMP_

 _Assassin/Rogue/Thief – 300GMP_

 **Medium infantry:**

 _Skirmisher – 125GMP_

 _Man at arms 200GMP_

 **Spear infantry:**

 _Pikeman 200_

 _Halberdier – 300GMP_

 **Missile Infantry:**

 _Archers – 150GMP_

 _Crossbow men – 175GMP_

 **Heavy infantry:**

 _Knight – 400 GMP (Knights are also trained in horse-riding)_

 _Paladin – 600GMP_

 **(Barracks Upgrades:)**

 _ **Training grounds: Boosts experience and individual stats for troops training in the training grounds by 8%. Troops may also learn new physical martial arts skills or supporting skills, such as:**_

 _Boxing_

 _Judo_

 _Karate_

 _Tracking_

 _Scouting_

 _Infiltration_

 _Roman Fighting style_

 _Samurai Fighting style_

 _Viking fighting style_

 _Spartan fighting style_

 _Sharpshooting_

 _Arson_

 _Squiring_

 **Archery range: (boosts EXP and stat points for all ranged units by 8%)**

 **Upgrades:**

 _Thumb rings_

 _Parthian tactics_

 _Volley fire_

 _Bow and Arrow discipline_

 **Lecture/war room (A special room used to learn/purchase/unlock new tactics and strategies on modern warfare. it also boosts the training of officers both commissioned and non-commissioned by 8%. The examples of tactics and strategies your soldiers can learn are:**

 _Phalanx formation_

 _Testudo formation_

 _Wedge formation_

 _Assault_

 _Counter attack_

 _Encirclement_

 _Shock and awe_

 _Infiltration_

 _Sabotage_

 **Armoury (All infantry and cavalry weapons and armour upgrades can be researched here)**

 **Upgrades:**

 _Fletching_

 _Bodkin arrow_

 _Bracers_

 _Chain mail_

 _Fire arrows_

 _Plate mail_

 _Ring mail_

 _Samurai Equipment_

 _Roman Equipment_

 _Viking Equipment_

 _Flintlock firearms_

 **Workshop: (Workshop allows the player to research and invent technology whether they be civilian or military)**

 _Wheelbarrow_

 _Hand cart_

 _Double bit axe_

 _Bow saw_

 _Two man saw_

 _Horse collar_

 _Heavy plough_

 _Basic mining tools_

 _Basic Farming Tools_

 _Gunpowder_

 _Siege workshop_

 **Stables: A stable is where the horses are raised and trained for labour, war, scouting or even racing.**

 **Train:**

 _Scout Cavalry 150GMP_

 _Light cavalry – 250GMP_

 _Hussar– 350 GMP_

 _Knight 500GMP_

 _Cavalier – 600GMP_

 _Paladin – 800GMP_

 **Upgrades:**

 _Better Saddles (Increases Rider's experience in riding horses and increases horse's speed by 10%)_

 _Warhorses (Charge, heavy attack and resitance to fear is increased by 10%)_

 _Saddlebags (Increases horse's storage/inventory capacity by 50)_

 _Horse armour (Increases the horse's overall defense by 15%)_

 _Horse blinders (Increases fear resistance by 8%)_

 **Apothecary: This building produces modern medicine to heal and cure the sick. It can slo provide medical advice to anyone who needs it.**

 **Trains:**

 _Pharmacist_

 **Upgrades/unlocks:**

 _Basic hygiene products_

 _Basic First aid kit_

 _Penicillin/antibiotics_

 _Basic beauty products_

 _Herbology research_

 **Market (Markets enable trade with travelling Traders and selling goods to potential customers for a good reasonable price, making them extremely important in developing your economy. Markets can also be used to research trade-related technologies, and to trade gold for other resources.**

 **Units:**

 _Merchant_

 **Upgrades/unlocks**

 _Cartography_

 _Caravans_

 _Merchant's Guild_

 _Cooking Spices_

 _Cooking Herbs_

 _Eastern cuisine (Includes recipes for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Indian and many other foods from starters, mains and desserts and also including popular drinks that are made available to cook and prepare in all of the player's structures that come with kitchen_

 _Updated European cuisine (Includes French, Belgian, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and many other country's popular cuisine)_

 _North American cuisine (Includes Canadian and central American recipes such as Mexican and others)_

 _South American cuisine (Includes Brazilian, Argentinian, Colombian and every south American recipes_

 **Shrine: (The Shrine is indispensable for players who wish to found a Religion as it can provide boosts for certain skill fields and You can also set a religion based on war that can boost your troop's morale and performance. The shrine also provides an area of influence that acts as a supporting role in healing and curing the sick, the hurt and the weak people when nearby.)**

 **Units:**

 _Priestess_

 _Warrior monks_

 **Upgrades:**

 _Herbal medicine_

 _Fervour_

 _Lesser Divine Heal_

 _Atonement_

 _Faith_

 _Shaolin training_

 _Lesser divine Cure_

 _Redeem_

 _Excorcise (Banish curses or possessions)_

 _/_

Whoa! That's a lot of information… it also appears that I unlocked more upgrades and technologies for my Tier 1 buildings. The blacksmith especially already has more technology upgrade options for me to choose from. For example, I can upgrade the blacksmith to be included with a blast furnace in order for me to develop steel ingots.

My command centre too has new upgrades that I will look into later on, such as a personal library (For my own personal research into adapting fictional or theoretical ideas into reality), upgraded kitchen, a personal workshop/garage, a home style brewery, a personal gym, a recreational area and a games room. Although, I will admit that one attachment for the command centre that really caught my eye…Kennels…Dogs?...Fuck yeah!

As I was browsing through the massive list of upgrades and new units, I noticed that I have some new upgrades/technology that I could unlock that could make a massive difference for my military prowess. The biggest technology unlock I've seen is gunpowder, what with unlocking some new firearms early on, potentially the weapons that dominated the 18th century/1700s could really make a huge difference in military campaigns whenever I decide to move down south. I was still unconfident that i could really fight toe to toe against an army of mages since muskets are still considered as an unreliable weapon when in the face of a combat mage, but I was slowly getting there.

Another building that caught my interest and that I could build was a shrine, which had me pretty puzzled and slightly suspicious on what its uses were for. Truthfully, I was not a big religious nut for obvious reasons being that religion has caused some very dark moments in history and in fiction and it still does today on present day earth. However, seeing it from an RTS gamer's point of view, it can be a pretty good asset to have depending on the situation and person, especially in Age of Empires and Civilisation.

All of these new technologies, units, structures, and upgrades were kind of making me a bit anxious and my head swirling in anticipation. Yes, I can summon the weapons and armour easily for free but at the cost of my own mana and only if they were dated before and during the year 1650, but it's not going to supply a whole army of at least a thousand, which would likely kill me from through exhaustion. Thus I needed money and resources, ASAP.

As if the lady luck herself had heard me, I had recently been brought good news I now have a functioning mine ready to go that's just outside of my borders that is rich in iron, and just a little bit further south west was a pretty wealthy gold vein and perhaps more underground, not Lannister big, but big enough to fill our coffers for a good while.

Things were looking up in my kingdom….Huh…I still haven't even given my village/kingdom/ small nation a name yet…nor have I come up with a flag, yet… gonna have to think on that later.

The next day, the goblins were at it again…fucking Goblins, man.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **The upgrades and new units shown above were mainly examples. I am doing this solo and trying to come up with man upgrades, technologies and units for an RTS gamer fic** is **pretty tiring. Therefore, I would appreciate more suggestions to fuel the creative mind.**

 **Secondly, I kind of regret setting my technology cap to 1650 as I probably should've at least set it a hundred years later or maybe 1850 to perhaps 1936 if pushing it a little bit. but I wanted to commit to a fic where there is some decent development, despite it being a fast-paced gamer fic.**

 **Another request is that I want to read more tech/kingdom/nation development fanfics/online novles or perhaps manga (I doubt it). Game of thrones fanfics have a few good fics in that area and I have seen a few good ones on novel updates. What I want to know is, are there any more of these sort of fics that I haven't/ yet to read out there on a website I don't know about? if so, could you please tell me where?**

 **That's all from me, I shall see you next time...with whatever fic I decide to update next...**


	4. Chapter 4: How Deep I Descend?

**AN: Finally! I've done the fourth chapter! and I am kind of thinking of amping up the pace here because I want to get things started to progress the story a bit further into Albion. this will chapter will mark the end of what appears to be the prologue arc, and finally dealing with some Blasted Goblins.**

 **Now I will admit, some parts I have gotten a bit lazy. I wasn't really that focused on the whole Gamer Jargon that will make people roll their eyes at the info dump they include in their fics, i am more of a progressive story oriented kind of person, but with a bit of content that contains all the good stuff, although i do sometiems drag on and i did'nt want that. Gamer fics is like the one feature on fanfiction that allows me to get away with certain things due to its absurd power and limitless potential.**

 **Some are outrageous, some are well thought out, some are just plain...bad... I won't admit mine is, that's up to you to decide, but I like to think that I am doing well here. I first did this fic because I was kind of bored of the same FOZ fic that lacked originality, it's the same goddamned thing with every release of newly published FOZ fanfics, where is there going to be something new?**

 **I think there was a time where Familiar of Zero fanfics were really interesting, but a large majority of them were removed for some reasons. you know when you go onto the standalone FOZ fanfics and it says there are 1.3K fanfics in this section, but in reality, there is only about half the number there. I think some of them were controversial or offensive, I don't know, but I would've liked to read them.**

 **But as a fair warning, my fic is going down that direction, just a fair warning to Y'all. expect some dark content like genocide, mentions of near rape, some gnarly stuff, gore, and sexual content...just a bit.**

 **Regarding some of the reviews, at times I may have lost interest with keeping up with the numbers, especially the economy part, as it just made me confused as to what I should do with it. Tihs fic is not really a wholly serious one, then again, all Gamer fics aren't made to be serious. it's just a fun project of mine to indulge on.**

 **I'm not the best at gamer fics when I am the one doing this solo without a Beta. especially when it's to do with numbers, i really do not like maths. if you wanted a serious RTS gaemr fic, you're gonig ot have to look somehwere else as i am not the guy you are looknig for when it comes to that. You are welcome to give this RTS gamer thing a go if you all want to, I'm not going to stop you for it. In fact, I welcome for anyone to give it a go, it is really fun and challenging.**

 **Anywho...thanks for the favs and follows as well to all those who reviewed and gave out helpful reviews.**

 **How Deep I descend?**

 _ **"How deep I descend?**_

 _ **Until I reach my end?**_

 _ **How deep I descend?"**_

 _ **[Fear Factory: Descent]**_

* * *

 **[Madness Project Nexus Soundtrack: The Day Before ]**

 _(I know some people roll their eyes at seeing OSTs, but I just felt like doing it, because it helps with the mood in a way)_

 **(1 week later)**

You'd be amazed at how much can change with a reality bending power that acts like AN RTS/RPG game in just a week.

The farm animals were finally cured for a start thanks to the sexy doctor/Vet, and then once they were at a healthy weight, I tasked the farmers, now that the farm was operational, in milking the cows. The milk had to be thoroughly tested to see if it was ok to be using it or consuming it, the results were fortunate and I was assured that the usage of fresh dairy milk would be fine for everyone.

The chickens/ Hens were already in the process of developing eggs once again, and they were not far off from laying their first batch in a few days' time.

The infected wool had to be removed from the sheep as it was completely ruined with fungi and rot, but once it was removed, the sheep's' and ram's woollen hide was eventually and surely growing back into a more healthy and cleaner shade of wool.

During the following week, the animals were steadily getting healthier and were gaining more weight to a satisfactory level. Like the summoned people, the farm has also given the animals passive perks that accelerated the recovery process of healing from their sickness and their malnourished states, but with the doctor who is also a skilled veterinarian, their recovery skyrocketed. Once that was done, I suspect that it won't be long until the males start to get into the mood to be a bit… ***Ahem!*** randy with their mates.

I was also amazed at the blistering pace that these crops and fresh fruit from the orchard grow, as if they were already ¾ of the way done judging by how green and ripened they look now. It only took like a day just to start sprouting out of the ground and from the branches, in just a few more days they will reach full maturity and will stand tall in the vast fields.

I kind of dreaded the fact that all of the crops have accelerated growth which meant that I or we would be forced to cut it all down and re-plant the seeds every month, but I was rest assured as soon as the farm had the updated upgrading options such as updated farming equipment, such as ploughs, scythes, horse powered seed drills and hoes for me to purchase through upgrades via the merchant which would be the fastest method instead of researching via a workshop or research and development buildings, which would take time. But it is possible for me to regulate the speed at which the crops grow as i don't want to be overburdened.

I could introduce the crop rotation method, seeing that we're in a fantasy medieval/renaissance period, but I kind of found it hard to see the point of having it since my farm has all of these kinds of buffs that accelerate growth and make them immune to the harsh seasons, pests and diseases in the soil. But then again, I doubt many people know of this method so I could introduce it for convenience's sake and have a period where I could focus on which crop is on demand, which would be logical as the farm is lacking a bit of space.

Now that I had access to dairy through the cows, I could now start producing fresh milk and dairy based products as an upgrade for the farm which is a building attached to the farm called the Dairy farm and they are responsible for making valuable products such as cheese, yoghurts, butter and…fuck it, why not ice cream in the future? All of this could prove very beneficial for my people's natural growth and rejuvenation, as well as economic growth as I bet many people would've never tasted anything such as ice cream before as I suspect that it could be crazy popular amongst the nobles, but we shall wait and see what happens until then.

The meat was coming in at a steady pace, but we are pretty well stocked up with what we need. We had rabbits, wolves, deer, birds and fish for our selection of meat. The cows, chickens, and sheep are still too short in their population to start a business in the meat trade… as cruel as it sounds, but I really had to go through with this as I need to keep my people well fed and strong, and the leftover meat can be well preserved in the basement with the preservation perk and also acts as a pocket dimension for storage space that can last for months, even years. Alternatively, we could sell the meat in bulk for a bit of cash.

I also discovered in the Miscellaneous tab in the construction menu that I could construct a building where I could produce other types of food, such as a butcher for the meat as that will unlock several dishes related to meat such as Beef steaks, Lamb Chops, Chicken breast fillets or teriyaki chicken (Mmm~!), a bakery for the wheat so I could make bread based products, as well as a dairy farm for the farm itself where it could produce fresh milk and cheese as I previously mentioned.

The smithy I found to be one of my most important buildings to have. It is one of the only places where I could produce weapons, armour and equipment at the cost of natural resources instead of using my summoning powers to create one at the expense of my MP, which drains my stamina and leaves me tired afterwards, or by purchasing weapons off of the merchant with my own money that I could be using that money for other investments that are a bit more important.

Recently, I discovered the upgrades for the smithy and it could now be included with an upgraded forge, iron casting methods, a smelter and a blast furnace. Now that I had the gold and the iron mines in my pocket, I just increased steel production by quite a fair bit that also increased my armour and weapon quality greatly. The armour and the weapons will be issued to my current personnel in case they need to be resupplied with more or better weaponry and equipment.

The weapons that came with the personnel once summoned are part of the summoned that they selected for themselves, there's nothing special about them, and they're just normal melee weapons and primitive ranged weapons, at least for now. In case if their weapons break or if they lose them, they can always acquire another one through the blacksmith or by the armoury where the weapons will be stored and maintained.

The mines were previously empty abandoned mineshafts, but they provided me with all sorts of resources. My main source of income was primarily Iron ore, with gold bringing in tons of wealth into my village. Amazingly, there were times that I may find a rock deposit covered in many layers of multiple minerals together in an open cave. I think this mineralogy phenomenon is called… Skarn deposits? I don't know much about it, but I may have potentially come across many elements in one place that I could research here. Hell, I'm not even sure how one managed to form all the way up in Albion considering Geothermal and volcanic activity is non-existent here, from what I recall about this floating hunk of rock. Perhaps that may have been the case from many, many, and I mean MANY years ago since it was a part of Halkegininan continent to which I don't know when that was, which may have been a decent possibility of it being true.

 **(AN: Dr. Stone anybody? Hey, I learned of it from the manga... despite how inaccurate it may sound, so don't get triggered if it seems wrong.)**

Now that I had a decent flow of income pouring into the village, I was now free to start spending on improving the living standards and defence in my village as well as my military power in this part of the region.

My Militia were all well and good, sure, but they were underwhelming when considering my main enemy is soon going to be magic itself pretty soon. They are skilled fighters, yes, very skilled, but they were equipped with primitive weapons and armour. I've now got iron for days that I can convert into steel which was a massive boon for weapon production and protection, but it's still not enough.

I also have many options for me to choose from considering my personnel. I looked at the default personnel that I could choose from, from their specifications, armour design, choice of weaponry to their skillset. They all currently looked to be pretty standard medieval army units to choose from, like Age of Empires II standard. Another thing I noticed was that they're all wearing plain and rather dull looking armour, which was why I was kind of interested in custom designing the armour for my private army, maybe even alter a few of these units' looks.

Currently, they look mostly like your box standard medieval army from any particular European country. But with a few alterations and a few armour and weapon pack research that I made sure to purchase via upgrade menus from the armoury, and a bit of inspiration that I added in my own office and personal library where I took the time in choosing the design of the look of the new armour and uniform to be based on, most of them based on fictional representations.

What I wanted was a bit of diversity in the design and looks of my army that we will be using for the time being, their uniform is pretty much a modern representation of the Diamond dogs, but their armour is pretty much what I will order straight from the Ancient - Medieval times, be it European, Japanese, Roman or Scandinavian.

Therefore, I discovered that summoning a fully trained and armoured knight is pretty much…pointless. My Construct Militia's training and combat aptitude is pretty much the same as any other combat personnel I summon, the main difference is in weaponry and armour, any human being can put on armour and swing a sword around provided that they are given the training.

But it got me thinking, what was the point of having a soldier wearing a full suit of heavy plate mail armour against mages that can spit out fire, wind, water, ice, lightning and rocks when all I have is better protection against primitive ballistic and melee weaponry? Granted, I've pretty much got the technology sorted out to face an army of foot soldiers dating back to the medieval era, whether they were trained or barely out of their nappies (Diapers). However, I soon needed to amp up the pace and rush through the science and tech tree and get my self some firearms as soon as possible.

Honestly, I thought that my militia were fine the way they were, their armour, while decent and lightweight, just won't protect them from a charging lance, spear or spike on horseback or from a gunshot and arrow, but they could do with a little improvement. Besides, I can always promote them into something else. And they were pretty diverse in wielding any sort of weapon, once given the training, so they pretty much don't have a favoured weapon and will pick any weapon at random once summoned.

A well-trained and accurate arrow or a powerful crossbow bolt will be another factor against their armour, so it won't do well in that regard. Therefore, I should consider upgrading their survivability.

But I just didn't see the point in making full suits of knight armour or Samurai armour only for them to be made simple targets because they were over encumbered by their own armour. If it were normal foot soldiers I were up against, then I may have considered it, but I'm just that paranoid about mages in the future.

Then, in a stroke of inventive thinking, an inspiring thought just hit me. Why don't I make several classes of armour, or a school set of armour for my infantry specialising in different combat roles… yes, I quite like that idea.

The inspiring thought that just hit me were the armour sets belonging to several Witcher school gears in the Witcher series, or the only game in the series that I have played and thoroughly enjoyed that was Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Excluding the Kaer Morhen armour, there was the school of the Wolf, Ursine, Feline, Griffon, Manticore and Viper armour sets. I could just set up the militia and the new recruits with the basic looks of the armour and the gear first, the more experienced they are, the better their armour will become once they upgrade it.

And to my surprise, my idea was accepted by the system, but only the armor level scaling system to balance things out a bit. which to me sounded a bit absurd, because this power of mine is beyond nerfing. The armour sets were official and they came included with several perks to them.

In order, we have:

 **Light weight:**

 _ **Feline gear (Cat)**_

 **Medium weight:**

 _ **Viper gear (serpent)**_

 _ **Wolven (Wolf)**_

 _ **Griffon**_

 _ **Manticore**_

 **Heavy weight:**

 _ **Ursine (Bear)**_

 **(*SIGH!*** _ **You know what? let's just say that the armour stats are similar to the Witcher Gears in Witcher 3 and leave it at that, ok? I really can't be arsed with all the info as it is a bit too much for me and I've gotten quite sick of it. Besides, they'll get replaced soon enough, so what's the point in keeping them?)**_

Starting from the bare basics where their armour will look like basic scraps of materials put together, but their armour is not anything to scoff at as the perks, armour and protection on those armour will level up and upgrade with the individual unit over time and they will gradually become better, stronger and more powerful the more experience they earn. Also, they are non-restrictive and maneuverable and lightweight for the people wearing them.

Of course, I figured that their armour design would be quite fitting seeing that the armour and clothing were somewhat similar in regards to the clothing here in this world, albeit less flamboyant and they look pretty cool. The colour scheme for some of them is a bit off-putting, so I'll be changing the colours into mostly dark colours with a bit of white and dark red and blue highlights.

Now that I had the armour and equipment sorted for the majority of my army, I decided that a bit more crossovers wouldn't hurt much. I wasn't going to stay in the medieval age for long as I'm going to be soaring through the renaissance age pretty soon until I gain a strong foothold on gunpowder weaponry and trading.

I was wondering about Elite/Hero class of units. The Merchant himself I would class as a Hero unit, while Misaki herself was more of an Elite class.

Furthermore, I noticed in my stats that I had a unit cap that I could summon, which was 250. An untrained militia unit costed me 50GMP, with the right training and equipment it would cost me 500GMP. So to reduce the price I decided to max out my combat personnel to 250. Luckily, they were highly tolerant and disciplined to endure through hunger and thirst since the crops had yet to be harvested to supply a large enough population.

60 of the militia that was trained was tasked to arm and train the new personnel that I had summoned whilst the civilians were tasked in creating a few more barracks to house the militia. Then I decided to upgrade the training ground to include more tings and improve the training and EXP gain from the training grounds to my personnel. Whilst the newly summoned militia units were just glorified recruits at the moment, but they were fast learners and they had already gotten the basics down.

Now that I have the crossover sets of armours and the combat personnel ready to be trained and prepared for combat at any notice, I had a look at my units equipment and tactics.

The infantry were made to be diverse in their roles and their training, they could be swordsmen, pike men/spear men, halberdiers, archers, cavalry and even a marine if they so choose to be.

As the week had been going by, I recently discovered that I was going through administration hell. It had gotten pretty bad as I had several things going on at once and the event log was going absolutely haywire and the metaphorical paperwork was piling up by the dozen that it was kind of overwhelming for me as I had other things I wanted to do and commit to.

Fortunately, Misaki, my aide, suggested that I should upgrade my Headquarters to include several department buildings that acts as sub sections to the main central command building in order to ease my work load off of my shoulders. Basically, since the Headquarters or the Central Command Building is the proverbial brain of the base in every RTS game, with several sub sections or different departments that are connected to the main body (My house) surrounding it, making up the Central Command building.

The idea behind it was more based on the fictional base in the Metal gear solid 5 game and Peace Walker, the headquarters of the diamond Dogs and Militaires sans Frontieres, the Seychelles and the Caribean Mother Bases, only it's a Japanese styled wooden housing instead of big ass oil rigs with multiple sections that run for miles which takes time to get to.

Instead, each building has a foot path or a walkway leading to each building long enough to spread them out fairly away from the centre building. Each division will handle separate roles from each other and report their progress back to the central command building, or Misaki who will then report it to me on their efforts and in return they will receive their orders directly from central command staff which answer directly to me.

The Combat Division is the primary backbone of my main fighting force that acts as a nation's military and security force. This division is just what you expect from a modern military force and it is responsible for all of my combat personnel. The building comes included with offices for military commanding officers as well as commissioned and non-commissioned officers belonging to different branches of the military such as the Army, the AirForce (When there is one) the Navy and the Marines (Again, when there is one).

Next was the R&D division which consisted of a 1 story building with multiple laboratories, workshops, offices and all kinds of places used to design and develop new weapons, equipment and technology for my soldiers, myself, my base and my village. The more scientists I have and the higher the developers and scientist's levels are at, the earlier I can get access to better weapons and tech without having to purchase the schematics for them every so often whenever they come up by chance. They can also research independently and discover new things in multiple fields and produce results that may vary, depending on the discoveries made and theories developed and proved.

The Base Development division was responsible for administrating the production and processing of various materials to be useful for my people, my army and my home/base in various ways. This includes the development of base construction, ammunition, support weapons, artillery, vehicles, technology, medicine, food and also managing the natural resources and many other resources that are provided to all units in the base.

The Support Division comes after and it is responsible for managing and supplying all personnel with their weapons, ammunition, supplies, food and medicine whether that is inside the base, or resupplying another base or settlement or to personnel out in the field. It also acts as a supply warehouse containing a series of packages and crates filled with weapons, supplies and ammunition, garages for vehicles, and refrigerating food and medical supplies stored in dimensional pocket warehouses ready for use

The Intelligence Diviison, short for Intel unit. This division is responsible for information gathering and setting up communications to all units across all bases and out in the field. Some of the personnel with information gathering skills or various other special skills are housed here. Granted it's not much, but what else could we do considering the technology in this world. We would have to be relying on more archaic methods of communication such as carrier birds, hand signalling and Morse code. It is also the place where I can train spies as this is a place capable of doing that.

The last building was more of a clinic that was home to the Medical Division where all of the Doctors and nurses belonging to the Medical Team were to be located here, as well as most soldiers that were injured or wounded on duty as it also included a sickbay. The building itself was a clean and fairly spacious medical facility where any injured staff, personnel or civilian could receive surgery, medical attention, and even mental and physical therapy for myself, my people and my soldiers.

No doubt anyone would think that all of these buildings were going to be expensive…not necessarily, provided that I supply the building materials for the construction such as wood, stone and bits of iron, then it will be mostly sorted until I have to purchase the equipment and the personnel needed to run them.

Speaking of personnel, I had to bring in a lot more of them recently. All of them were to be constructs instead of summoned. It's not a biased choice or anything like that, it's just that I can't find anyone that can run a modern like administration, industrial, scientific researching and delicate medical jobs efficiently in this time period of Halkeginia judging by how socially repressed this society is, unless I teach them, but that would take time…time that I had little of these days considering what's out there. At least the bright side is that the construct personnel can survive without food for weeks if they choose to.

The equipment for the department buildings that I bought was just under 300,000GMP and they were all pretty basic stuff based on the time period of the 1600s, all provided for from the gold mine of course. The personnel was bit less than that at 25,000GMP for 50 C rank personnel (500GMP to be split up evenly in all divisions, 1000 each for an A rank division leader among all six divisions. Bearing in mind, these were all classed as support personnel, not combat personnel. Support personnel is pretty much unlimited, but the combat personnel is pretty much capped at 250 for now, as it limits to how much combat personnel I can have out on the field of combat.

My money, while it has taken a bit of knock to it, was steadily climbing up at a reasonably fast pace, even nearing 390,000GMP last time I checked. I summoned more normal people to fill in for the roles requiring manual labour to at least increase the flow of gold coming out of that mine and food that was about to be pouring in from the farm.

Production is taking its first steps, slowly…but it will be worth it. With the research and development laboratories and workshops in place, I can now focus on anything I could possibly need at this point. With the Skarn deposits filled with a whole manner of resources and materials, I can use that as the base foundations for chemistry science and metallurgies, depending on what deposits I find, the results will no doubt be interesting.

Although, the mining will have to be regulated as we are quite literally living on the edge of this sky island that we may risk falling through the further down we go. Not only that, but we may end up discovering the wind stones that hold this island up in the sky soon enough. Firestones are another matter that is unfeasible to acquire in Albion, unless we buy them from somewhere as we cannot buy them here as we haven't yet discovered the mineral. These magical minerals are formed of compressed magical energy leftover like waste, thus they form into a crystals like stasis, almost like a battery of some sort.

Acquiring one of these minerals will allow us to learn of its secrets and perhaps with enough research we can implement it to new innovations and designs. Airships come to mind, as I'm not exactly keen on producing hydrogen-based dirigible balloons/airships/Zeppelins and then re-enacting the Hindenburg disaster whenever a fire mage has the brightest idea to spit fire at it...yeah, fuck that.

Development wise for the military, gunpowder is now available for production, but it will cost me quite a bit to get the required resources such as sulphur and saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate), thus they will have to be acquired as a full and complete product instead of finding the parts for it from the Merchant as he seems to have a lot of useful things available in stock, provided that we have the money to pay up front of course.

Now that we have gunpowder in stock, muzzle loaded weaponry was my first priority of focus in arming my military forces here with superior weapons. While I did mainly focus on researching Flintlock weaponry as I preferred that over the outdated Matchlock weaponry, but there were still teething troubles with such an historical firearm. Rate of fire, accuracy and reliability were some of the more common factors that made medieval firearms looked down upon. They were loud, smelly, messy, noisy and uncouth. It was not a gentleman's weapon, oh no, far from it. Some even considered it to be a coward's weapon, like the medieval crossbow, but none could deny their lethality and their better chances at winning wars from a distance.

But what I really wanted was to improve the musket by a long way, and reckoned that I could bypass the tech cap so that I could obtain 19th-century muskets way ahead of it's time here with a few more improvements and innovations that will improve its performance.

Artillery was another factor in obtaining a better offensive and defensive weapon. While I had the capabilities of making ballista's, trebuchets and catapults, the cannons were by far my most effective weapon in obliterating infantry and structures. However, using artillery against an enemy that hides in the forests and underground caves proves that the cannon are not best suited for any offensive roles just yet, thus I needed a lighter form of artillery, yet portable.

Overall, the base and the village itself is safe for the time being and is coming along nicely. It has been a pretty busy week, While the crops were busy growing, the civilians (A more polite term of name that is used by the nobility class for the commoners or peasants which to this day is now declared as an offensive derogatory term.) are tasked with other roles such as assisting other jobs such as hunting, fishing, mining, assisting with the carpenters or the blacksmiths, or maybe even assisting in new construction projects.

But mostly, I picked a rotary system on certain days and specific times of the day where a number of civvies will commit to combat training and self-defence lessons in CQC. They were to train with simple and easy to use weapons that require little skill to use such as spears, Shields and Flanged maces or any kind of mace or club weapons, axes, and crossbows. I wasn't going to give them firearms just yet as I wasn't keen on them rushing through the reloading process whenever they're in the heat of battle where they are more likely to panic and more prone into making a mistake when the construct personnel whether they are trained enough with a muzzle loaded firearm can reload them at video game like speeds.

I was still not a fan of muzzle loaded weapons and I've yet to break the 1650 barrier, but with the newly established R&D division I'm pretty close to cracking through, at least with weapons research. However, as I mentioned before, I did know a few ways to make muzzle loaded weapons a little bit more better, and it is pretty darn possible simple to make even by this world standards to bypass the tech gap a little bit, if the people in this world knew about this of course **….*Intermission!* "What's that?...They don't?...Oh?..."*Intermission!*…** Well, according to Misaki, they don't. You know how it is, stagnant technology, society and innovation n' all where I suspect foul play here and there and somewhere… bloody biased favouritism over magic and that entire BS, we'll show 'em.

Manufacturing them was a bit of an issue as we had to research the industrial tool that is needed for the process. sure, we had the basic hand tool to make muskets, but none that could match the rate of the industrial revolution's machines.

First, we introduced a lead shaped conical round instead of a round lead ball. This was known as the Minié ball to some that makes a musket shoot further and more accurately, although it still didn't solve the reloading speed. However, there's another method that solves that….ehhh~, not by much, but it's a start. What we introduced next was the paper cartridge where the round and the gunpowder is already stored inside a specially wrapped up cartridge where I also took the liberties in making it water proof too. Simply just tear off one end and pour the contents in, load the round in and do all the necessary steps in preparing your weapon and that should knock a few seconds off the clock, provided that you are a trained musketeer **(Is that the term of Musket men?)** of course.

Percussion caps were another innovation I know roughly how it's made that can be made within my tech limit, they're more reliable and protects against water, and can potentially have a higher rate of fire, Although they can be quite a bit fiddley to handle when reloading.

And lastly, I introduced the idea of adding rifling into the barrel to increase the firepower and accuracy of the weapons.

After I designed some of these improvements myself, I had soon enough learned that I had cracked through the tech gap and made vast headway into some of the 18th century weapons, some even catching up to the early to even the mid 19th century.

Feeling pleased by the results, I ordered for My standard issue weapon for muskets to be mass produced, which was the British Enfield Pattern Rifle, still a muzzle loaded rifle, but a vast improvement over the British Brown Bess and the Baker smoothbore muskets. Perhaps I was feeling a bit of a patriot, with being an Englishman myself, but i seriously couldn't care less of knowing which Musket is better. To me, all muzzled loaded weapons perform the same, with a few bits of difference, but they all do the job well despite their horrific reload rates.

This was a weapon far ahead of its time, although it is still classed as a Musket. While I did introduce these weapons of the 19th century, the production of contained ammunition is still ways off for me to research as even I don't really know how to produce that. Plus, the blacksmith and the workshops need to be upgraded first to support the manufacturing of my new and vastly improved muskets.

Soon, the village itself had a recent expansion throughout the following week, new houses were being built and new infrastructure was being placed. Fresh water Wells were being installed throughout my layout that I had planned for the village. The well was connected to an artificial cavern that the engineers dug up. Although the downside for the well is that it is limited in water, unless we connect it to the river. Alternatively, they can act like the water tank in my house where it can refill itself by a set designated time, but at an extra cost. However, since the water tank can refill itself every 24 hours, the well can refill itself once a week… so I'd say money well spent.

The one thing that was different was the construction of the village's newly constructed Palisade walls that encircle the whole village, as well as the sentry towers that were placed behind the walls to keep a lookout towards the forests and elsewhere, especially the roads leading into the forest and the road following the coastline eastwards.

There was also another dilemma that I had the displeasure of having to solve by myself, waste disposal. Of course, since this period in this world's era is currently based mostly on 17th century Europe, it would be no surprise that they would still be using chamber pots and then disposing of their contents out the window. I had the unfortunate chance of encountering one of my civvies doing his toilet business behind a bush nearby my sawmill infrastructure. Unfortunately for me, it had been a little too late to realise that some of the newer people were just too nervous in using the latrine that I had in my house and instead were doing their business outside in several places usually by the forests or behind a few buildings outside of the village.

Of course, I was quite annoyed by that, but I didn't blame them for not having the common sense or the courage of a 21st century human in modern society, which would just be foolish. So instead, I declared that defecating inside the village or outside on the outskirts and even dumping their waste in the streets is officially banned and outlawed. They are to always use the newly installed outhouses with the appropriate seats, leaves to clean themselves and a hole that leads down to the bottom of the island. I couldn't really do much about waste management as that particular tech tree will come later or if there is a method involving magic that I don't know about, but that will come much later. It will have to do for now, so unless somebody was at the wrong place, wrong time if they were underneath the island… well that's their problem.

The Command Centre/ my home was actually coming along nicely, the kitchen had been expanded and my two maids were enjoying themselves greatly as they were learning whatever they could with the new menus and choices of different cuisines they had never even heard of or seen before in their lives. My personal workshop was great as it involved all the appropriate tools, and the library and my office was nice and peaceful. I decided that I should make myself a personal gym and training room/dojo. I at least didn't want to feel helpless whenever a fight comes up. However, it seems that martial arts are a bit impossible for me when it comes to hands, as I found out the hard way on the punching bags.

On the brighter side, I can still use my legs and weapons as substitutes for my hands, but on the down side still is that my stamina has been shot up pretty harshly. My lungs were not the same as they were before, not because I'm unfit, but the smoke had done a number on it to the point where I can only train for a limited time only before I devolve into coughing fits, some being worse than the last, some involved bits of blood being coughed up.

It sucked! These coughing fits were leaving me vulnerable and rather helpless, I hated that feeling. My personnel, especially Misaki insisted that I stop for my own health and safety, but I simply refused to give up. I know I can become stronger and I refuse to just sit back and let them do all the work all the damn time. NO, I will overcome this weakness and they can't stop me!

Knowing that they can't disobey my orders, they insisted that I must include a security team, private bodyguard squads in fact. I can see their logic in this; they are worried about me, so I accepted their proposition.

While I had to compensate for the fact that I couldn't use my arms as weapons, I had to rely on other forms of CQC combat that does not involve punching as well as weapons and my legs as the only weapons I can use. I even considered using knuckle dusters but with the rings padded. Guns on the other hand, It was a fairly straight forward weapon, despite all the hassle of muzzle loaded weapons.

Another thing I added to the command centre for my own personal joy and for the benefit of everyone here… I included The Kennels. How could I not include Dogs!? Dogs are man's best friends for a good reason! Not only are they very friendly and playful, but depending on how you train them, they could be very good guard dogs, sniffer dogs, herding dogs, search and rescue dogs and even hunting dogs.

So far, the list of working class of dogs that I can summon is:

 **German Shepard**

 **Doberman**

 **Boxer**

 **Rough and Border Collie**

 **Rottweiler**

 **Siberian Husky/ Alaskan Malamute**

 **Great Pyrenees**

 **Akita**

 **Bloodhound**

 **Golden Retriever**

 **Labrador**

This was like one of the first newest upgrades I bought once I hit the second tier, and my reason for buying it was justified shortly a few days after.

/

It happened just a few days after the encounter with the Goblins, where the days were growing shorter and colder, fog was rising up from the forests, and seeing it come rolling out of the treeline in the early morning was quite an unnerving sight. Because it was coming up to mid-Autumn, the trees were already shedding off their leaves, giving off the feeling of eeriness and the forest was old, really old, seemingly giving off a dreading feeling almost off and not to mention they were big and tall. Wouldn't really be surprising seeing that this island sits on top of a gigantic magical mineral vein that keeps this island afloat.

As I watched the fog come rolling out the forest and then in the distance, I saw the fog just falling off the edge of the island like a waterfall. Because the fog was so thick, I ordered the civilians to cancel work outside of the village for the day, lest they were to venture off too far near the edge of the island and miss their step. So to keep them preoccupied, I had them focus on some village projects. The patrolling militiamen/guards were brought closer to the base so I could keep my men close and without losing contact with them through the fog.

The outhouses were one thing I needed to put in seeing that I would prefer that they understand about hygiene and germs and all that. Another important project I was adamant about, a school. Where everyone can learn the basics of reading and writing, counting, multiplying and dividing as well as other subjects such as science, geography and history that they can learn about to improve or introduce into their job fields and possibly be promoted to a higher rank of worker.

But a personal project I was looking forward to was the introduction of the Kennels. The sheds that house these dogs was placed by the side of my home and HQ. There it will train all sorts of dogs with different roles that will assist us in several ways. My combat personnel approved of this greatly as they understood the value of having an animal companion such as dogs.

The shed took only 15 minutes to make as it was only a few wooden planks to make as well as a few fences and gates. Once that was done, I summoned a few German shepherds, 3 female and 1 male with the same method as before with the farm animals. Only difference is that I selected for them to be healthy for an extra fee now that I can afford them, thanks to the mines. With that done, I ordered a few more dogs such as Dobermans, collies, and huskie and Malamutes just for a few more dogs, some for business and a few more for my own enjoyment… I wonder if it is possible to acquire Wolves?

As soon as I summoned the dogs in with the same amount of females and males, not a few hours later once I had done that, the dogs were growing restless. Their behaviour was becoming aggressive and cautious and some of them were whining and several more were barking at something in the distant.

I was made aware by the sound of their barking, the same morning I was having a short rest. I was feeling the same thing they were feeling as my senses were on full alert. Then, I noticed my mini-map had appeared and there was this pinging noise. I looked on the mini-map and my eyes winded, there were red dots just inside the perimeter of my village, they were all scattered, probably have already been caught and a few of them were currently stacked up near the…

 ***Peeeep!*** a loud high pitch screech from a whistle was heard from several of the guard posts and sentry towers as well as several militia who were patrolling nearby. I jumped up from my bed and dashed towards the window, seeing several of my armed militia armed with various weapons and the civilians were rushing towards the wells and others carrying water and then rushing towards the farm, shouts, yelling and dogs barking was heard all over the village, as well as several inhuman screeches were heard also as I heard a series of dull cracks in the distance as the militia were firing upon the enemy.

In the distance to my great aggravation and annoyance, the farm building had caught fire, it didn't look like much now, but if the fire does not spread any further then it could be stopped. It seemed that the fire had only just started and the dogs had already picked up on the harsh scent of smoke and the presence of the enemies.

I equipped my clothes in a hurry and also equipped a leather armour vest with several iron plates acting as protection stored in pouches. As soon as he put his uniform and armour on, he rushed outside with a Kukri blade in hand and a muzzle loaded pistol in a holster.

As soon as I rushed outside I spotted that the dogs had already escaped their pens and were pursuing the perpetrators on foot. Unsurprisingly it was the Goblins as I saw one goblin getting double teamed by a German Shepard and a Rottweiler, the German Shepard tackled it down to the floor while the Rottweiler was in the process of biting its face off.

I walked up to the two dogs and as they noticed me coming, they stopped what they were doing and stood by my feet protectively. I looked at the goblin with its face gouged in by a series of teeth. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. That's the third time this week they tried something. These creatures never learn, no wonder they are considered the Bain of all smallfolk in almost every fantasy world.

I had nothing to say to this Goblin, its intentions were already made clear. So without hesitation, I pulled out my pistol that was already loaded with the round and gunpowder and just shot the goblin in the head, no questions asked. It was the first time I fired a gun, not a modern one as the recoil was pretty weak, although it was a bit messy shooting the Goblin at point blank range, and loud.

After I shot the Goblin, I looked at my gun and thought deeply to myself. "I really wish I had a revolver right now, at least they would be more bearable than these." I sighed to myself as I remembered the painfully tedious process of loading these bastard things that are pretty much glorified antiques. Before I could rant on any further, Misaki ran up to me at an urgent pace.

"Master! We have a minor problem!" she spoke severely.

I didn't answer immediately as I holstered my pistol and turned to her. "Yeah, don't I know it? How'd this happen?"

Misaki straightened up and informed her master about the whole situation. "Sabotage, Master. It's a good thing you ordered for the kennels to be built and for the dog units to be trained immediately, as expected of Master's tactical thinking. The fog was too thick for our men to have been able to notice them come in." she praised her master.

I raised a brow at that piece of information. "The Goblins snuck in? How'd they get past the patrols, or even the wall for that matter?"

Misaki nodded "They used the cover of the fog to sneak their way in, using all four limbs to run and keep low, using the dense fog as a smoke screen. They are also natural climbers. Once they were inside, they tried to set the barn alight as well as our granary. Unfortunately for them, dogs have a keen sense of smell and they noticed them coming even before they appeared into our territory. However, they were discovered before they could do some real damage thus making their attempts at arson rushed, short-lived and badly planned out. The fire only managed to burn parts of the wall off before our soldiers found them and our workers to put out the fire." She said with mirthless smirk.

"Is there one left alive this time?" I asked her.

She shook her head to the side response "Unfortunately this raiding party only consisted of the usual common Goblins, thus they cannot talk. Some of them managed to escape"

"Tsk! Great…"I said disappointedly.

"However, the dogs have picked up their scents of where they came from." She spoke, sensing her master's disappointment and spoke up.

"They did?" That certainly got my attention now.

"About five miles away south east from here, there appears to be a settlement there, most likely it's their tribe of where they came from I'm guessing." She explained.

"And the dogs just detected that?"

"Once they grab a particular scent, they can follow it for miles. Provided that we counter attack soon before the scent disappears or we find another goblin that has come from the same direction, then I'd say we have a good chance at making them pay."Misaki nodded her head in confirmation.

This was definitely good news, as long as we were prepared in the following week and that the dogs don't lose that scent, we've essentially got them.

I smiled behind my bandages and a little glint would be visible from my eyes as I could not pass this chance up. "Rally up the combat personnel, we're going to war." I declared.

* * *

We didn't strike until the day after tomorrow, as I had a few things to manage first before I go on the offensive. The assault was to begin in the early morning when the sun had still yet to rise. I had tasked 200 combat personnel we had for the assault and kept the rest of them back at the base for security reasons.

It will be the first time where the combat personnel will be participating in a real skirmish that will be against the Goblins. My units were all equipped with various weaponry of close to medium and long range assortments in order to fight their enemies.

The armour had been changed to my specifications, based on the Witcher school gears armours. The C class privates were equipped with the basic level 1 armours of each class of armour from the Witcher 3 game and the corporals and sergeants wore the ones a level above or maybe even 2 levels ahead. Some of them chose to wear armour from the For Honor game, where I could see the personnel wearing the armour based on each champion character from the games and they almost looked similar in comparison judging by their height and intimidating presence.

They were also equipped with rectangular shields, like the Romans had and similar to modern Riot police where they based their shields on that's as big as their bodies. At the front of the assault group would be the dog handlers, mainly consisting of German Shepard's, Doberman's and Rottweilers leading the way towards the goblin settlement. And with great insistent stubbornness, I was to be in the middle of the group. It wasn't easy trying to insist upon my personnel, but eventually, I won over them. It's not like I blame them for being concerned, seeing that my body is half burned and my lungs are literally cooked on the inside.

So to at least ease their concerns, I had Misaki and a couple of loyal and elite bodyguards assigned to my protection detail, and to no real surprise the doctor herself volunteered to join us, even though I'd prefer her back at the base, but she greatly insisted that she join the party in case, mostly to tend to my condition if my lungs started to act up or if anyone gets hurt later on.

In our group we had our scouts also trained as Rangers that have scouted the forest further ahead, mainly to check if our path is clear. They also took a few dogs with them, seeing that they have keen senses.

Because we will be moving at night, we had to move slowly and steadily through the forest. Misaki informed me that while Goblins were mainly cowards, it does not mean that they are downright underhanded and sneaky. Traps could've been made in the forest and Goblins could be hiding anywhere within the trees and the undergrowth of the forest.

I was equipped with what clothes I had on yesterday but added with a light armour vest underneath and a padded and reinforced leather trench coat with inner layers of woven links of chains in the interior of the coat that should protect me well enough. Weapons wise, I had summoned three particular blades, a Katana, a kukri machete and a bowie knife. These blades were actually pretty simple to produce provided we had a fully upgraded yet traditional smithy.

For ranged, I had summoned two fully upgraded muzzle loaded pistols that I could pull out at any time in case if an enemy gets close enough, but my main primary weapon that I was quite proud of as I came up with the idea itself. I had made myself a pump action styled custom crossbow with a modern trigger and a trigger guard with improvised sights. The crossbow comes with a grip that also pulls back the string, like the lever tool that looks like a claw that latches onto the crossbow and pulls the rope back, the pump action mechanism style is like that but permanently fixed to the bottom of the crossbow as a grip.

The crossbow can fire in a semi-automatic mode if I had a box magazine to feed the bolt into the firing mechanism, but I would be sacrificing power for smaller bolts to fit in a box magazine whereas I can free an individual larger and more powerful bolt.

But one weapon I had brought with me was essentially gunpowder explosives in the form of medieval grenades, wich is just essentially the stereotypical black fuze bombs you see mostly on cartoons or again, Witcher 3 may or may not have influenced this decision, including the smoke and the flash bombs. Another thing that inspired me to make was explosive projectile weaponry. It were pretty easy to think up of actually, all I did was add a sack of gunpowder on a crossbow bolt, arrow and a couple of spears with an added fuze on it and then launched from a special throwing tool called an Atlatl, the exploding spear were mainly inspired from the Thunder Stick from Mad Max…I just hope nobody gets the bright idea to go "Witness me!" and then jump into a crowd of Goblins with two spears…. I probably shouldn't have thought that.

I figured that since we are going to be striking so early in the morning, I figured that we wouldn't really needing much lighting tools such as torches as the twin moonlight in Albion was bright enough than a couple of street lamps at night. The light was bright enough to see mostly what was in front of us, but there were shadowy spots in the forest that were questionable at best that make me doubt if something or someone was watching us.

Fortunately, that was specifically why I brought the dogs along. We were walking through the forest where the dogs had already marked several spots of interest nearby on the map. Mostly, it was just several plants and mushroom species, I don't know because it wouldn't tell me as I don't know my Herbology that well.

They also managed to pick up several traps that were strewn across the forest, from pitfalls, rope traps, log swing traps, and even several variations of tripwire traps that involved wooden spikes and swinging rocks. Had to hand it to them, they were definitely cruel in their ways, I'd even spotted a few animals caught in these traps that had bled out or were already rotting corpses by now, I even spotted what appeared to be skeletal remains of a human just pinned to a tree by the remains of a swinging log trap that crushed his ribcage, the body already picked clean from weapons and armour to their own flesh, but they appeared to be a couple of decades or centuries old give or take.

 ***Woof!***

The dogs appear to have picked up a scent on something nearby, the blip on the Mini-map was coloured blue instead of green, could be an unknown. The dogs had already run off ahead to where the point of their scent was leading us. Me and a group of bodyguards and Rangers followed the dogs to an open pitfall trap where the dogs were peering inside. They looked back towards me, giving me a whining noise, meaning that they found something… or as soon as I arrived at the edge, they actually found someone that was not a Goblin.

When we arrived at the edge of the pitfall, it was pretty dark to see down there, so I brought out a torch and held it out as a bodyguard lit it with a flint and steel and hovered it over the hole.

What was down there, surprised me quite a bit as I was not expecting to see something like this. "Well, I'll be…" down in the hole was a young woman with reddish hair. She was dirty, muddy, exhausted and also injured judging by her bloody leg. By the look on her face, she seemed quite relieved but still pretty terrified by the sight of us. "We're not here to hurt you if that's what you're wondering… can you still move your leg?" he asked her.

The woman felt slightly relieved in hearing that, but she shook her head and answered. "N-Nay..me leg's busted, good sir." She whimpered as the pain in her leg was unbearable for her.

I nodded in response. "I see. Wait a while, I promise we'll have you out of there shortly." I ensured to her as I crafted a few bits of rope and wood to make a rope ladder and I chucked it down the hole.

"Boss? You're not meaning to go down there, are you?" the doctor spoke out skeptically.

"I am, why?" I answered back, honestly.

"I'd highly suggest that you refrain from doing so. That hole is mud infested enough as it is, who knows what sorts of bacteria that reside in there that could infect your already burned wounds. Why don't you order one of your men to do it instead?" the doctor suggested and Misaki nodded in agreement as with the rest of the personnel.

I only looked back at them with mild irritation at being rebuked, being treated as if he was made of a glass which was kind of pissing me off a little at feeling so helpless. "You're showing a lot of concern for me here? Does my health really worry you all that much?" I asked them.

Misaki tilted her head and responded "Master… I mean Boss-sama, it is the summons's responsibility in keeping their master safe. Without you, we would cease to exist… all of us." She explained with a calm but serious expression that made room for no arguments.

That answer, I was not expecting such an answer that was very deep that made a whole lot of sense to me. 'Fuck! I never thought about it like that, of course they're not going to behave like generic NPCs. It's no wonder why they're all showing me this much respect, admiration, and affection.' I felt gobsmacked and felt very stupid indeed at that news and he better understood his summons' views on him and their behaviour around him. Were they treating me with so much respect, dedication and admiration because their lives were connected to mine, was that what they fear the most?

"In case if you are wondering, we do not see you as our lifeline. While that thought is true and makes a bit of sense, but in truth you mean much more to us than that Boss-sama. You gave us all life and a purpose to live for, for that we will gladly serve you and do anything for you _, Master_ " Misaki smiled serenely and said it so suggestively at me that made me all of a sudden avert my gaze as my heartbeat skyrocketed and cheeks heat up at the smile behind my bandages.

"R-Right?" I blushed furiously behind my bandage mask and frowned in confusion at what she meant by that. "Can we focus on the matter at hand please?" I decided to get us all back on track and I finally caved in and sent someone down the rope ladder.

It was just a random pick as I selected a normal grunt that was sent down to retrieve the woman from the hole. She had been rescued in just a few minutes as she was seen clinging onto the shoulders of the man who carried her out on his back. The woman was placed beside me as she was set down on the ground for the Doctor to have a look over her, the redhead looked over to me and bowed her head to me. "Th-thank you, milord." She shivered in coldness and the stinging pain she felt from her leg.

"You don't have to call me that, I'm no noble lord." i assured her

"Then…am I to call you "Boss" then? That's what all these fellas have been calling you, ain't it?" she asked.

"I guess I see nothing wrong with you calling me that." I sighed at that, it seems that name has already stuck on me, there is no use denying it anymore.

"How did you end up here in these woods, or more specifically, down there?" I nodded towards the hole.

"I was running." She said, her eyes darting around her, inspecting the wood around her.

"Running from who?"

"Not a who, mi-…Boss, but from those Goblins that infest these woods." She spoke, feeling quite terrified by the thought of them.

"Where did you come from?"

"Away from the Goblin tribe, I only just managed to escape."

I nodded but continued pressing for more answers. "I gathered that, but what I meant was where'd you live?"

"Oh, erm… there's a small town just south of here, they live quite close to the forest. It's the most northern town in all Albion south of the great mountains and forests, Hearth. It's my hometown, although it is not a very rich town but it's home."

"What are you doing this far north then, this deep in the forest?"

"I was…kidnapped by them monsters from our town, along with others." She whimpered. "They were to use us…as…" she choked up on her words as her tears were threatening to spill.

I placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from shaking. "That'll do, I'll do what I can for your friends. We'll talk more once we return" I assured her.

"Th-Thank you, kind sir!" she sniffled as tears were pouring out her eyes.

"I turned to the doctor and two soldiers nearby. "As soon as she's patched up, you are to escort her back to the base, keep her safe there."

"Do you want us to return?" they asked.

"You can, although you may need to rush back if you want in on the action. I'm certain that we are pretty close by now."

As soon as the young woman's leg was patched up, I sent her and two men on their way back to the base while I and the rest of the group continued on our way to the Goblin settlement.

20 minutes later, we stopped as the dogs and the rangers signaled to us that we were right near their doorstep. I could see on the mini-map, they all appeared to be stationary, unmoving…asleep perhaps? The majority of their structures were mainly wooden huts made of sticks and thatch, with few mud huts mixed in. this tribal village was built right next to a cave, a deep looking one too. Whatever lived in there is bound to be important.

This is good, but the numbers were the main factor against us here. However, if we perform a well-executed surprise attack, we can take most of them out before they get the chance to counterattack.

I issued the rangers to go into position, as they were to encircle the settlement and take out any patrolling goblin or sentries nearby. They were armed with mainly longbows but with special payloads on the tips of their arrows. I issued orders not to attack any of the specified huts I marked on the map, because the dogs picked up several scents belonging to humans that were still alive in there.

Because most of them were asleep, I figured we could move in quietly and take them out in their sleep, but that idea turned out to be fruitless as we heard a noise within the village.

There was a woman, being dragged out naked by her hair. It was a lanky goblin, could be a hobgoblin or a goblin champion, I didn't know. Her screaming however was starting to wake up the other goblins in their holes and their huts because of her cries, screams and her constant pleading. The Goblin only threw her onto the ground and laughed at her attempts as he slammed her head down into the dirt and pressing her had down to force her to bend over.

I could've waited for a more opportune time, but seeing the moment before a woman was about to get raped…something inside me just snapped, it reminded me of **HIM** , that fucker… that constant reminder of why I stood up against shit like this, why I refused to let bullies like him win.. And the painful reminder of why I got these scars was when something dark woke up inside me. The moment when I saw that creature's thumb hook behind the knot of his loincloth, was the moment I took the shot from my crossbow.

* **Thwump!***

The friction and the snapping sound of the crossbow echoed all over the vicinity as that moment marked the signal for the charge as soon as the bolt punctured through the goblin's throat with a bloody squelch.

It seemed the woman didn't notice that the goblin behind her had been killed as she was too busy sobbing. I signaled over to two rangers to bring her over, quickly. The two rangers snuck into the village at a quiet but quick pace as they tapped on the shoulders of the woman. She would've jumped up in fright but she was quickly hushed by a gloved hand and they ushered her out of the village quickly before she could scream.

Once she was successfully retrieved, I held a hand up to prepare us all for the inevitable assault.

* * *

There was another Goblin that had stepped out with a bottle of mead in hand, stolen from a raided village cellar of a farmer. The goblin was drunk and stumbling everywhere. The Goblin had heard the wailing of a woman and feeling quite aroused by her screams, so he decided that he wanted a bit of the action too. Once he made his way outside. However, to his surprise, he couldn't find the woman anywhere.

Strange as it was, he could've sworn the noise came from outside. He noticed that one of his brothers was lying in the dirt flat on his stomach, face first in the dirt. The goblin grunted to himself and waddled over to the goblin, intent on asking his brethren where the bitch was.

The unmoving Goblin didn't reply to his questions, and he kicked him a couple of times to get his attention and even poured a little bit of mead on him. He made another stumble and then felt something wet underneath his foot that was warm and sticky. He looked down and noticed that there was a sharp stick with a steel tip pierced through his neck. The Goblin cried out loud and almost tripped over onto his own arse, fear gripping his heart. Instead of calling for help, he kept his eyes on the forest in front of him, he looked everywhere for any sign of movement, until he kept his eyes glued onto one particular place where he could've sworn he saw , he kept his eyes glued onto that spot for what felt like an hour.

Until suddenly, he spotted multiple signs of movement as shadowy figures appeared from behind trees and out of the brushes and ditches, all of tem launching and hurlnig smoking objects right at thier homes… and then the forest lit up in a bright and explosive display of firepower.

Their homes exploded when the Goblin saw multiple projectiles thrown at the huts, their shoddy and primitive construction was no match against the firepower of gunpowder. Chunks of stone and mud scattered everywhere, the thatch houses were in a fiery blaze as some of the goblins rushed out of their homes, desperately trying to put out the fire that was latching onto their backs. Rivers of black blood seeping out of several wrecked houses as he saw chunks of flesh and limbs all over the place as one bomb had been let loose inside of one of the huts that were full of sleeping goblins.

He then saw a large group of humans charging in, weapons drawn with the intent to kill. all of them wearing and wielded gear of decent and high quality, from swords to axes, maces, spears, hammers, and halberds. Hacking and slashing, piercing and stabbing, smashing and crushing through every goblin that stands in their way. there was only 40 of them and they were slaughtering through anything that got in tier way.

He saw that all of his brethren were all running around like headless chickens in the chaos. His kind's cowardly display and their worth as a species was an embarrassment to all Goblins everywhere. It was tough for him being the only Goblin that was worth something than the large majority of goblins in this kingdom, or so he thought until he felt a spear being thrown in his chest.

One man in the group of humans, the leader as it appeared judging by how much he stood out from the rest. He called to his men to form up a shield wall and they stood by at the edge of the village.

A little while later and the Goblins were still in disarray, until… The Goblin Champion soon revealed himself from out of his cave and saw the devastation that was being brought on his home.

" **What the fuckin 'ell is happening out 'ere, ay!"** the champion roared out and all the Goblins stopped and looked towards their leader. " **And what are you sorry twats running around for!? That's not where the enemy is, isn't it! Turn around and kill them, for fuck's sake!...but leave the women alive, they're mine and they look delicious, far better than those wenches we took earlier."** The goblin champion grinned and cackled fiendishly.

His speech seemed to have done the trick and they all managed to against some morale back and reinforcements have arrived from deep within the cave. Once the horde gathered up enough numbers, they now started to feel a little bit confident in pushing the enemy out of their village.

The enemy number seemed to be a rough estimation of 200 men… 200 to their 316 with more on the way from nearby and from within the caves. The goblins turned back around, ready to face their enemy of 40 men that had charged at them with blades cutting part their brethren. Only to find them that they have retreated back to their shield wall after they heard the sound of a high pitched whistling sound, signaling to them three times. No matter, they will simply overrun them with their superior numbers.

The Goblin champion roared out a challenge and a warcry to rally his subordinates to the front and to swarm their pathetic shield wall. Once they approached nearer, and nearer with a furious charge at their lines. The Goblin champion spotted who looks to be the leader of this rabble, his head covered in bandages and wielding a pistol in one hand, but his eyes were the most notable features he had ever seen on a human, ones that burned with a cold unforgiving fury.

"Redoubt party!" he heard him as the 40 men retreated into the crack of the shield wall, but then the shield wall opened up more and out came multiple barrels of muskets poking through as well as more barrels appearing over the top of the shields as well as more musket men appearing over the shield wall standing on a high slope or even standing in the trees.

"Volley by ranks!" he heard him again and then he heard the coking of multiple muskets and aiming their weapons at the horde of Goblins.

"Front rank, fire!"

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

 **Critical Hit!**

As soon as the command was heard, a hail fire of high-velocity rounds erupted from out of the barrels and smashed through their numbers like they were nothing but wet paper. The conical rounds and the rifling of the barrel had worked extremely well in increasing the high velocity and the lethality of the weapon.

Rounds impacted through several goblins at once, smashing through bones, piercing through flesh like it was nothing and leaving nasty exit wounds out the back. Some rounds even severed limbs. After first volley fire had been shot, the process began to alternate towards the second one, and then after that deadly volley, the third waited for it's turn.

But they never stopped, they just kept up the suppression of multiple volley fires by replacing the muskets that had already been fired with pre-loaded muskets that were being loaded and prepared for use by some helping hands nearby and passed up the weapon once they were finished and were to do the same with the one that had already been fired.

* * *

Second rank, fire!

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

Third rank, fire!

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

Front rank, fire!

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

The process went on and on, repeating the same procedure again and again. I knew that the odds were against us here, but I was counting on the outstanding discipline and overwhelming firepower on our side for us to pull through.

But this?… this was just a bloodbath. Firearms took little effort in killing people or monsters where all you do is point and shoot. And that is why it is the main reason why the gun eventually won over the sword.

"Fire!"

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

The smoke billowed everywhere; the smell of spent gunpowder was a different kind of smell than petroleum fuelled fires, a nicer smell even.

"Fire!"

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

Despite the overwhelming odds that are against us, all they're doing is just sending them to their deaths.

"Fire!"

 ***BANG! BANG! BANG!***

I lost track of the time of how long we were doing this for, I didn't even account for how many rounds we had left. I was only focused on their numbers that were whittling down at a fast rate as each round just punched through line after lined up goblins that were all bunching up in a massive group, big mistake.

Eventually, the bodies were piled up too high for the Goblins to continue their charge as their morale had been shot to pieces as they did to dare to go against them now in fear of dying a brutal death.

As soon as I saw this, I gave out the command.

"Cease firing!" the order was followed instantly, and the firing ceased.

All that was heard was cold dead silence, barring the crackling of the flames that burned strongly on the corpses of the goblins and the ruins of their homes. The clearing was filled with dozens of bodies, and river pooled all around them.

Only a few dozen were left, far less than the numbers they had started with and I could say that we are now on equal footing when it comes to manpower. Their leader, the tall and stocky goblin was nowhere to be seen, could've been shot down from the chaos that a stray round hit him for all I know.

 **You have leveled up! X9**

 **\+ 46,486GMP**

 **You have unlocked a new Title: [Goblin Slayer]**

The notification was sudden and it was causing quite a bit of noise that put me off a little, I knew that this battle would reward me quite handsomely, but it was something to check later on

But massacring a whole village of Goblins? Was I really okay with that? I would like to think that the Gamer's Mind's passive ability is doing its job in calming me down and thinking things through calmly and logically, but the doubting feeling you feel deep down in your heart will never go away once you see things through once you've done the deed and got blood on your hands. Killing one Goblin in cold blood was one example, but a justifiable murder no less, so what are a few hundred Goblins more?

The only comfort I hold over any of this is that knowing that people will thank me for what we did this day. Who's really going to say they miss a Goblin?

I looked over the field and observed over all of the corpses, inspecting them. Some were alive, some had dropped down, playing dead just before the moment another volley could've fired. Perhaps they were going to try for a sneak attack or are just laying low, waiting for a chance to escape, too bad for him that I already know they're faking it.

"Master?" Misaki brought me out of my thoughts. "Your orders?"

I looked back at the Goblin village, I thought long and hard. What good was mercy for them when they only think of killing anyone weaker than them and regarding them as nothing but a sport? Why was I here? Was it to teach them a lesson? Albeit, A harsh and brutal lesson paid in blood. I knew I had already crossed the line and there was nowhere to go but forward.

"You may advance, any Goblin that stands in your way, take them out. Anything you find here we will take for ourselves." And with those words, I had sealed the fate of this large Goblin settlement and sentenced it to death.

* * *

 **[Total Annihilation OST: Futile attempt]**

Not 30 minutes later did we finally complete our task, my promise I had fulfilled upon these Goblins was done. The Goblin champion fled with his tail between his legs back into the cave. I guess it was true what they say about Goblins, all of them were cowards no matter how strong or wise they may be. Then again, humans are similar in that regard too, but not all of us are the same.

The entire settlement lay in ruins, bodies were piled high by the dozens, only a few managed to escape in terror. The gruesome sight of the aftermath would've left any man weak stomached and scarred for life after witnessing all that, but playing a part of all this…that's another story, because I felt nothing from all this, I was content the way they were now. Am I a monster for what I have done? Probably, but it had to be done. Now the civilians in the more remote areas of the country and can rest easy without fear.

We found the champion hiding behind the throne of the Goblin King. Funny enough, I did not expect this small settlement to be the so-called Kingdom of…what was it?...Gorokil, or something? Whatever, it does not matter anymore, they're gone, that's all there is to it.

He was hiding behind the throne where the current Goblin King sat, except that this king was actually the champion all along, and had seemingly given up without much of a fight. But that didn't stop him from attempting to rape one last woman before we were to raze his kingdom to ashes.

Just before it could stick his…thing…into the poor woman that had been used as a plaything for a while now, and looked almost as if she had lost all hope, we intervened.

The Goblin champion was pulled away by two of my personnel, both strong men easily overpowering the weakened Champion who was about near my height. The Goblin Champion thrashed about, like a scared animal until we had to silence him with a buttstock to the face from a musket.

His head had been raised forcefully by his hair and was made to look into my eyes, the last thing he saw was a man, his entire head covered in bandages, his burned wounds visible around his eyes, but the eyes themselves burned brightly. The man before him kneeled down to his level, his tone of voice low and deathly cold.

"I warned your kind that attacking us was foolish, yet you persisted. All week you harassed my people of my village, endangered them even, where all we wanted was to live in peace. But like the animals you were, you pray on anything weaker than you like as if we were nothing but sport for your petty games, a game we won and ended.

And now here we are… we are at the final ending of your run in the game. You started this conflict between us and paid the price in full, and now we're the ones that have come to collect our due." I spoke to the Goblin that shook with fear and babbled incoherently.

 **Intimidation (Killing intent) has levelled up: level 9**

"No words needed to be said here, just a well-placed round between the eyes…" I said before pulling out my gun and placing the tip of the barrel right in the centre of the Goblin's eyes and cocked the hammer back. "None will remember you, why would anyone want to remember a king that pillaged their homes? Farewell, False King." I said my final words and pulled the trigger that painted the cave wall a black-ish red.

 **(End of OST)**

At last, it's over…for now. I didn't expect a conflict to have escalated this early, no matter how short this one may be. Another one may creep up on us soon, and we need to be ready for anything.

Several things happened throughout our campaign, during and after our efforts in conquering their kingdom. I had found out that I had levelled up to level 14 during that slaughter. The EXP gain was enormous during the battle/slaughter, as there were hordes of them and all EXP was shared and duplicated between all of my personnel.

We found the imprisoned women in the cave, all of them were bound, starving, abused and used by them as entertainment, I shouldn't need to explain more on what they had done to them. Their mental state was questionable, others were not as fortunate, but I was still dammed determined to help them anyway I could, the medical division will see to that.

We also found treasure and many stocks of useful supplies. They had quite a lot on offer, food (If a majority were not spoiled by dirt or from rot) some resources and crafting materials, stolen gold and money, Scavenged weapons and armour, mostly they were common and uncommon weapons, not much use to us but they can still be salvaged for parts.

But that wasn't the main part that surprised all of us, one of our men had made a discovery in the treasure room. it turns out that these Goblins were lucky on one of the roadside raids they had been on, must've caught them by surprise if they were to nab this thing from the victim group they had stolen this from.

What they had brought before me was a small rectangular crate, marked by the Divine inquisition of the Holy church of Brimir, according to Misaki as she recognised the holy seal of their identification. The Goblins were definitely opportunists and had the nerve to steal this from the holy men of all people, according to my informant, Misaki. I wasn't sure as to who this religious organisation they had stolen this from, but my money was that they were some sort of agents working for Romalia, relic hunters' maybe.

I had confirmed my suspicions on the Relic hunters part as I had acquired a legendary find. How the Goblins managed to grab hold of thiI'll'll never know.

 **X1 A rank Loot!**

 **Kalashnikov/AK-47 (1x 75 round drum magazine, X3 30 round magazines)**

Apparently, this weapon was a legendary drop, well according to this world it may as well be one.

"Hoh!~ An excellent find, Master!" Misaki said in awe as she voiced her thoughts as she was just as elated by this find as I was, as were the rest of the party.

"Yes, although it's not much to go on right now. Not with the lack of ability or research to produce bullets, but also because we lack the industrialisation and manufacturing means to make them."

"No, but you can use the weapon itself to boost your research in advancing and improving firearms research. Not long from now, you could invent the world's first contained cartridge round in just a few days." Misaki assured me of the overwhelming benefits of keeping the weapon around for a bit.

"But still…how the hell did this weapon end up here?" i said, scratching my head.

"Weapons have been summoned into this world from Earth for centuries, most of them being ancient weapons. This one is just one of the many examples that was summoned into this world."

I nodded at that bit of logic. "Hm, I understand that it's something to do with a void spell. Constantly bringing in more stuff via a portal. And the condition of this weapon, not even a speck of rust is one this thing, despite its obvious usage that this thing may have come from a war or something, and there seem to be some remnants of sand in the internal mechanism of the weapon, most likely this came from a desert. All in all, it could've come from the time of the war on terror, the Gulf war, or the Afghan/Soviet war, who knows?" I deduced.

"An accurate assumption, I suspected that myself due to it's age, but a powerful and renowned weapon nonetheless." Misaki nodded and I grabbed the weapon and the magazine and stored it into my inventory and made my way outside.

I spotted my Doctor who was checking up on the girls and some of the soldiers that were wounded in combat where some Goblins did try to sneak attack us from the side and some were unlucky to get hit by a sling to the head. Others were not as fortunate as they found they had been poisoned by a crude toxin made by some basic plant life and their own… fecal matter, or shit in other words. The crude but effective toxic arrows were effective to a certain extent, they had made several of my personnel indisposed and in a moderately poor condition, where it would send any man into critical and even life-threatening conditions, but it doesn't mean that my personnel can still die from it.

Luckily we had a highly skilled doctor with us that was curing their sickness and tending to the wounded and the victims, giving them the support they needed.

I approached her "How are they?" feeling concerned for all their health.

The Doctor stood up from her couch after cleaning a wound from a head injury that belonged to C class Militia. "They'll live, the injuries were not as serious as we thought, the armour saved them from most of the lethal shots, the poison has been purged on most of them, but with a few left. However, it's these girls that are the main worry. We needed to get them back to the medical HQ if we are to fully cure them of their trauma and grievances."

"What troubles them so much?" I asked the Doctor

"Trauma mostly, but that's not the worst of it. I have detected life growing in their wombs." She spoke grimly.

That comment made my stomach churn at the thought.

"Several of them can be easily counteracted, but some of them are already pregnant, and Goblin new-borns only take a few months to grow, 3-5 months at best.

I gulped at the sound of that. They had been imprisoned for that long, and they still held on, barely.

"Get them back to base, I can tell by some of their expressions that they do not want to bear any children belonging to these monsters." I ordered and several personnel, mainly women approached the women and gently escorted them back to base along with the rest of the party.

But before we left, we set up several bombs in the caves and set alight several torches and we set this place alight in fire and flames as well as the destructive force of the bombs that destroyed what evidence that remained of a Goblin Kingdom that once existed there.

* * *

 **(A Few days later)**

After we successfully neutralized the threat that was right on our doorstep, we were now in the clear to spread our territory a bit further out. There were still some stragglers that did escape that day, but they were only small remnants barely a threat to anyone, unless they found another tribe.

The seven women we rescued from the Goblin settlement were slowly recovering in the Medical division. The female Doctor who is called Julia assured me that they were well taken care of, as the medical Division while they did not have the up to date medicine and medical practices, but the fact that we know of it is pretty much a massive boost to medical research. And the recovery times in the sickbay has decreased drastically. The Doctor herself was also a very skilled surgeon, psychiatrist, pharmacist, and medical researcher too.

As soon as they recovered a bit for us to talk to them, they…freaked out when I notified them about what they were carrying inside of their wombs. Their reaction, whilst understandable, was also pretty unnerving the way they vehemently screamed for us to "Get it out! Get it out!" over and over again. We even had to restrain a woman who tried to reach for one of the scalpels to cut it out herself.

I demanded silence and calm from them, and once they eventually did, obediently I might add, they became more understanding. I explained to them the process of what is going to happen, and they gave their consent to do it.

I wasn't there for the messy part, but I did see the remains of what came out. I kept thinking to myself, was it cruel of me to think that it had to be this way? Then I thought, no matter how it is, it was a cruel world out there, they may be innocent new-borns now, but given their fast growth rate and their violent tendencies, it will be a matter of time before they descend down that path the same way as their descendants. It was no use dwelling on the thought, what's done is done, get over it Zac!

The girls eventually left the sickbay, all of them reasonably healthy. I found them all in the foyer of my home, all of them lined up to thank me in person. By thanking me, I mean they all dropped to their knees in tears, hands clasped together and praised me as their saviour, as embarrassing as it was. They also begged desperately to join the village, informing me that they had nowhere else to go as their families were all killed and their homes razed either because of wild Goblin and orc raids or because of the civil war. I hadn't the heart in refusing them, I was generally a kind person most of the time, and look where it got me.

So, I had them enlisted as helpers around the house or Central HQ, doing what they can ether as maids or volunteers to other divisions.

Now that we had food that we claimed for ourselves, we had enough food now that the crops were now in full bloom and ready for harvesting. The wheat can now be converted into flour provided that we had a wind mill and a bakery at the farm so we can make bread. The potatoes were also a good food source and will sustain us nicely, mostly because I miss the taste of potatoes based food (like Chips, wedges, curly Fries, crisps, Doritos, Pringels etc.). The farm animals were also not far off from producing eggs and milk for everyone.

After a few days since the day of the assault onto their village, I was not feeling like myself. I knew I had changed, I can feel it in my hands, and it wasn't the scars. The deep ice cold feeling that you know you just took a life still remained, the gamer's passive was nullifying all of its effects to a certain degree, but the feeling was eating me up deep inside, and the whole thing was stressing me out. I was but a normal innocent civilian about a week and a half ago, just recently I had taken a life and ordered a massacre on a Goblin village that attacked my people and retaliated in force. They were a force of evil, many would argue, but try saying that when you are the one making the calls and see if your morales agree with you then?

All of the EXP I gained from that skirmish was enormous, I had levelled up from level 5 to 14 in just a day. I had enough skill points to make me at least a considerable individual threat to most people. And now I had two perks to choose from, but naturally, I wanted to raise the overall tech level, so I put both of my perk points into raising the tech level from 1650, to 1850, that was 200 year difference. Now I could personally summon weapons, arms, vehicles and much before and during the year, 1850, although some tech will still need to be researched, I can only make use of weapon summons for now, but manufacturing them for my soldiers is another matter I will need to address soon.

Another thing once I returned to base, I had all but shut myself in my room, before ordering the workers to make a distillery near my house to brew my own alcohol, because I sorely needed a drink by then. It was pretty cool that I could now brew my own alcohol, including beer, lager, Cider, even wine but I wasn't going to touch the bloody things. After I brewed my own alcohol which was several bottles of whiskey, Rum, and a few bottles of fruit cider like Kopperberg and then proceeded to shut myself in my room for the night planning to get absolutely wasted just to forget about all these negative thoughts that was stressing my ass off…or so I thought.

I wasn't even two bottles in to get slightly tipsy, but i was a little bit buzzed at the moment until there were several knocks on the door. I tried ignoring it, but they were persistent.

"Jesus Christ!" I pinched the bridge of my nose and got up straight away. "I thought I told them I don't want any visitors!" I gritted out under my breath.

As soon as I opened the door I saw a few familiar faces that were several groups of my female personnel, about eight of them including that blonde sergeant with the impressive athletically toned body, Misaki, and the female Doctor herself.

I was quite puzzled as to why they at my door at this time of night. "Yes? What is it?" I said quite gruffly.

"Master…we're worried about you. You've barely said a word since we returned." Misaki expressed her worries out.

"I'm fine." I tried to insist, but they were not having it.

"you've made several bottles of strong alcohol for yourself, I can smell it in your room, you are not fine." The Doctor expressed out firmly.

I shut my eyes tightly, cursing to myself that these personnel were very sharp minded when it comes to detail.

"it's just been… a difficult week."i sighed heavily to myself.

"Nobody was killed, despite the wounded and the few traumatised." the Doctor pointed out

"Not yet at least…that's one of the reasons why I am so…afraid. I do not know if I can keep on doing this, sending you to your eventual deaths. The thought of it... scares me, and I shouldn't feel scared." i said, almost choking at the thought of it, as my apprehension slowly grew.

"Master, the system will not rob you of your base emotions, they are only there if the situation calls for it. and you needn't worry about us, if one of us dies, we can still be saved by the system's memory and be re-spawned in a 90 day window." Misaki reasoned.

I widened my eyes at that piece of news as I recalled that piece of information when I first read the skill details about summoning personnel. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? Am I just supposed to use you as disposable tools?" I narrowed my eyes at that, not like that one bit.

Misaki bit her lip, unsure what to say next. "It was what we were made for, mas-"

"THE HELL IT IS!" I roared out, surprising them all. "Like hell I am going to accept that shit! Don't you ever dare label yourself as that again, you are more than that! You're my…friends, the only people I can rely on!... I have nothing here! I only have you all! So please, don't sell yourselves short like this… I am not some sort of tyrant!" I pleaded, my emotions weighing heavily on me.

After that outburst, there was a tense silence outside of my room and in the house. It was beginning to sound a bit too silent as it was beginning to unnerve me as I saw their expressions all turned quite tense and serious for a moment before evolving into genuine heartfelt smiles from all of the female personnel.

"Zachary-Sama…thank you, for accepting us!" Misaki bowed down in gratitude that left me quite flustered for a moment. "But…," as soon a she lifted her head back up I saw something lit up inside her as her eyes burned with want and need, as were all of the female personnel, doctor and officers outside my room as their cheeks were beginning to light up and their breathes beginning to turn heavy and hot. "after you made that passionate speech about us… you've made us all hot and wet down there… please, show us how serious you were about us!" the expression of lust and want was very clear in their eyes and on their faces, and my mind was screaming at me **"Danger! Run away!"**

 **(Lime Alert! or a something shorter but still sweet!)**

"Eh!?..."unfortunately my reactions were too slow as I was suddenly dogpiled by a group of horny female personnel, most of them being trained soldiers, pinning me to the floor as they all marched in and locked the door behind them before they dragged me over to my large bed.

"G-Girls…Wh-What is wrong with you all, why am I pinned like this!?" in this situation, I was panicking, cursing at the fact that my Gamer's mind decided to be absent during the moment when I needed it most because I was most definitely sounding like a virgin, even though I was one and was surely going to lose that title in just a moment.

"Don't fight it, Master" Misaki cooed. "We want to show master how much he means to us…With. Our. bodies" she said it so sensually with each word as she slowly removed her uniform to reveal enticing and racy underwear as did the others who were wearing sports bras and underwear, only the Doctor was wearing black lingerie and suspenders.

Their forms were something to behold, not just their voluptuous breast and their firm asses, but their slender hips, toned and muscular abs and their waists, as well as their legs, arms and even their luscious hair that they had let down was enough to send me over the edge as little Zac down there just woke up and was ready for action and was scraping against the tight constriction of my trousers and boxer shorts.

As soon as they saw the bulge forming between my legs, their faces were dyed a permanent red with sexual desire. "Ah, it seems Master's friend wants out to play, allows us to take care of it~" one of the personnel, the sandy blonde said with a sexy smirk on her face as she held onto my arms, reaching slowly down my waist.

Godamn, this was so difficult to hold myself back, but the way they talk and the way they were acting towards me…it's just too much!

"Please don't hold back, Master…Master does not need to hold back. You can be as greedy as you like with our bodies" one female officer who was fairly taller than me grabbed onto my hand managed to snake it up her bra-clad breast that was like…a pair of large DDs, bordering Es that had a firm, soft, yet gravity-defying feel to them. How does one fight with tits that big?

"We will do our utmost best to please master!" Misaki said as they all sashaying towards the bed I was on like hungry lustful predators.

"H-H-Hold on! ..can't we just…talk about this!?" I stammered nervously

"We'll talk later, we're driven by our instincts now…" the Doctor said with a grin that was followed by the rest of them as they all simultaneously removed their undergarments, revealing their most prized possession to their master, a most delicious and enticing looking bodies on display for him to touch and play with to his heart's content. "Now, please, play with us…Enjoy our bodies at your whim!~" they said as one as they all jumped into bed and all grabbed onto a body part to remove my clothes in order to reach their prize.

"IYAAAA!" an unmanly scream was heard that night, followed by loud moans and heavy panting as well as several bangs, thuds, and the wailings of what sounded like a very passionate night for a one young lad.

* * *

Downstairs, one particular blooming maid that had become even more pretty and cuter as time passed by, she was now starting to develop a bit more flesh on her arms, legs, butt and her breasts that was growing into a High B, bordering C cup. once the door had close upstairs, for hours she was left blushing madly like an innocent maiden to herself as she was the one who was on cleaning duty that night, she had heard everything her master had said, which greatly moved her and also what hhappenednext and was still happening right now. she bit her lip to herself, feeling her jealousy rising up but shook her head as she remembered her kind master's words.

She was by herself when she was on cleaning duty in the kitchen as her Mother decided to sleep in early after a tiring day, she was by herself just washing the dishes and she was doing everything she could to drown out the noise.

'I...m-m-m-must repay my master somehow...' she thought to herself

 ***Thud!***

"Iyaan!~ Master, you beast!~"

She mentally stammered and scrubbed faster on the dish she was washing as she could only imagine what was going on behind those doors. She knew she wasn't really allowed in there without permission, but still...a girl can dream...'Wait?... I mustn't think that way about Master, what will he think of me!?...But, will he mind?' she shook her head as she continued to scrub the dishes harder in the Kitchen, blushing madly everytime a passionate cry was heard.

 **[END]**

* * *

 _(DVDA metal cover: Now you're a man! A Man! Man! Man!)_

 _Yeah, no lemons here...not yet._

 _To all those wondering why there was a distinct lack of Gamer related text boxes, I was lazy. I know, not a good thing, but I kind of just threw subtlety for numbers out the window for this chapter and wanted to focus on progression more than anything, instead of being bogged down by trying to figure out the estimate of where the economy is roughly about._

 _Again, this is a fun fic, not a serious one...although it can be in a sense._

 _Next Chapter:_

 _We now venture out beyond the forest, to find civilization. The Merchant asked Zachary to go south with them to set up shop in some of the nearby towns, preferably ones with a strong trading hub around. Zac was all for the idea, but with the war at its peak in the south, he'll need to watch his step. lest he gets dragged into the conflict, whether by chance or by choice._


	5. Chapter 5: PowerShifter

**Thank you for the Favs, reviews and follows. Keep them coming and to also bring in more suggestions for World building starting from 1850 and perhaps a little bit of Fictional tech as well. Also, can anyone supply me with useful FOZ lore that will help me with the world building or for potential ideas in the future? Anything you'd like to see from scenes or content, you can suggest in the reviews or you can PM me.**

 **A quick Question to you all, would you all mind if i posted another fic similar to this one in FOZ that follows Saito in canon, but with RTS oriented powers including Gandalfr powers? I've left it in my Document and is nearly finished. It is a little bit AU and Saito of course would be a little bit OOC from his appearance to his personality as he will be much less of an idiot and is indifferent, blunt, rude, a pervert (But hidden rather well, and rational and logical in military sense.**

 **Powershifter**

* * *

 **[You want war!?**

 **You've got war!?**

 **More than you've bargained for!?]**

 **"PowerShifter: Fear Factory**

As I laid in my bed, eyes wide open in disbelief once my eyes fluttered open fully aware and awake as the memories soon came flooding into my head of the past events during last night. My eyes scouting the room, observing every detail of it from the ceiling, the walls, the furniture and ornaments to the beautiful and masterfully nurtured naked female bodies that were like crafted for perfection.

" _Oh, bloody hell_ ~…" I groaned as my breath was caught in my throat, it felt as if exhaustion was weighing heavily on me as I could still feel the effects of being made to make heavy, passionate and wild sex with all of my officers, my personal doctor, my aide and then eventually more female personnel who came to join in on the fun.

My face, while my bandages were a bit ruffled, looked pretty gaunt and my body seemingly felt as if it was lighter but thinner as if I had been wrung dry like half-empty toothpaste or a soaking wet towel that's recently been wrung dry.

All night… I was forced to commit in activities, whether it was against my will or not is still debatable, that I had never even bothered or have at least found the time to try before in my past life. Well, that's a bit of an understatement…okay, I never bothered to try because I didn't want to and also that I couldn't. Nobody was interested in me so I didn't bother, and School was pretty much to blame for my stunted mindset as in my past I had a major lack of faith in my own confidence in getting a date from a girl. Back in school, a large majority of the more popular and good looking girls in my school years were just... evil, always liked to play on my feelings that affected my self-confidence negatively, nasty selfish bitches they were. The boys were no better as a majority of them thought themselves to be some wannabe alpha males or some shit like that, or were just boy toys for some of the nastier and spoilt rotten girls that had them wrapped around their fingers like string. Always did enjoy making my life hell back in school, glad to have left the place, but the past caught up to me eventually and I've paid the price for it.

But still…I never expected…well, this!

I was surrounded by at least 14 or more female personnel where more had joined in during the night as soon as they heard the commotion. All of them as naked as I was, excluding the bandages that had unravelled itself a bit, all of them revealing their goddess-like beauty from their majestic and exotic looks and showing off their athletic, toned, voluptuous and amazon like physical builds that will make a UFC fighter, an athlete and a supermodel jealous that in comparison they come nowhere near to their amazing and mouth-watering bodies that varied among some of them from their lithe, muscularly and athletically toned and voluptuous builds as well as fairly tall stature among some of them. I saw it all, from the big soft and ample busts, to their soft but tight firm and toned asses and waists along with their masterfully sculpted abs, showing off their tight toned waists along with a few six packs among them, all of them so defined as well as soft, that I bet that you can crack an egg on those if they tried, or crush heads with their thighs and their arms.

Don't get me wrong, but I find the muscular (But not too much) and athletic build to be sexy in women, I have nothing against the soft, petite, curvy, slender and generally thin sort of girls with a smooth silky kind of skin and grace that you'd find in many women, them too I do not mind. It's just that I don't expect many females in my combat personnel to be all… petite, soft and all that you find in normal girls, whereas these women in my Organised Military Force had the bodies that can kill an average man with ease, as well as cripple a normal man in bed with a body like they had.

As mesmerising as they were, I would've surely died that night, or have ended up as a cripple if I didn't have my Gamer's body perk along with the boosted endurance and stamina, although that perks usefulness decided to be absent that morning as I woke up the next morning feeling somewhat refreshed and feeling like I would've had an extra spring in my feet if I didn't feel so numb as soon as I get up from bed, during the night however… I was like a man drunk on adrenaline and my body on fire.

But still…I wouldn't say that I didn't enjoy it, far from it. I'd say that was the best night of my life, as well as the scariest.

Why?...Well~…

They're very passionate with the one they love, as well as incredibly possessive, protective and affectionate as I have recently discovered. Although they surely didn't mind sharing me with the other girls, I can't say the same for other girls they don't know, who knows?

But the things we did?…words cannot describe that moment of your first time the way it happened last night.

But first, they had to get one concern out of the way before they could proceed. My personal Doctor, Julia, knew I wasn't really going to last 2 rounds, not with the condition I was in considering my lungs, so what she did was to cook up some medication for me that came in the form of a crude looking inhaler of sorts. The medication proved effective in calming my lungs down, yes, but with some… rather interesting and insane side effects that came shortly after.

* * *

(LEMON ALERT!)

 **[The Midnight: Vampires l (Couldn't resist, sorry)]**

It first started off with a bit of foreplay between us all, I was clearly the inexperienced one and so they were the ones leading the way. I had never in my life ever thought that I would be having sex with a woman, but being on the verge of being reversed gang banged by a group of 8+ women that looks to have no restraints on at all.

The Doctor safely removed the bandages around my mouth so she can claim the lips for herself, while the rest of the girls each took a body part of mine, whether they be the arms, back, torso, legs or even better for them, my tool that was being tended to by three equally horny female personnel. Misaki, of course, was in the middle focusing on the tip while the sandy blonde named Sarah and a rather tall woman with the killer breasts all took turns each to pleasure me in a tantalising way.

The girls that were claiming a body part for themselves were all having their way with them as they all tried to get themselves off. The ones that had claimed the hands and my mouth were the lucky ones while the other two that claimed my legs had to grind on my shins and knees to have a chance of release.

The feeling of this amazing foreplay that I felt for the first time and the way their technique felt on my cock was just out of this world. I couldn't last 10 minutes of that, let alone five. Yet I made all of their tight pussies wet and writhing in pleasure with barely any effort at all. I even felt a torrent of juices just pouring into my mouth from the doctor that she may as well have orgasmed right there and then if I hadn't lost it and cummed straight into Misaki's mouth when she had the sudden but pleasant idea of shoving my cock down deep into her tight wet throat.

The climax proved to have been a bit… much for my body as my lungs were starting to show signs of acting up and then I would end up coughing my lungs out when I least expected it to and at the worst possible moment, so the Doctor had introduced this inhaler that looked pretty crude and the smell it brought was incredibly strong.

She had told me to breathe the fumes in through the nozzle built into a crude respirator of sorts that contained crushed herbs and other things she added that didn't seem suspicious at the time.

The effects were instant and… well…

/

 **(3rd POV)**

Sitting on the bed, a sandy blonde was being deep throated as her Master had his legs locked around her head and over her shoulders, his hand caressing her head while also in his moment of euphoria he was forcing her to swallow his length that had somehow grown longer, thicker and denser from what was a standard 5-6 inches had grown into 9 inch beast made of thick tempered steel. A side effect from the medicine, a pleasant one, but a side effect that didn't show any signs of slowing down or stopping as the Boss just seemed to have unlimited energy and all his muscles looks to have tensed up and filled with extra bulk, density, and energy in them as well as his man tool. The adrenaline also fuelling his inner lust as he relentlessly pounded her throat. The sandy blonde, whose name was Sarah, even decided to show more enthusiasm in their activities by leaning back more and hoisting her master up by gripping onto his hips and then cupping his ass, keeping him planted there as he got into a better position where he can plunder her mouth and plunge deeper into her throat.

Her facial expression was one of sheer joy as she accepted her gift from her Master, her eyes shimmering and glinting like stars and hearts were seemingly fluttering in her eyes briefly before they were rolling back from the intense orgasm she felt from smelling his now manly scent and the feeling of her master's seed on her tongue.

/

Two female Personnel with the biggest tits double teamed together to please their master by sandwiching their large and magnificent orbs of flesh together in-between their master's royal scepter, while a third girl with an athletic build sat on her Master's face, grinding her pussy hard into his mouth. Each time the head poked out from the double tit fuck, they would give it a lick that sent shivers up his spine.

The rest of the female personnel all surrounded their master on the bed, rubbing their sex furiously at the scene before, each of them biting their lips together at the scene they were rubbing themselves off to as they came close to release.

The one who was sitting on his face howled in pleasure, as tears of joy cascaded down her cheeks and her tongue hanging out as she let out a torrent of juices into her Master's mouth. While the two tending to their Master's sceptre succeeded in making their Master cum as a tower of his seed erupted from out of the tip and pooled in the centre of their cleavage and patches of their face was covered by it. Their expressions were clouded as they smelt his scent, to them it was intoxicating and better than any high they could possibly obtain.

The rest of the female personnel were at their limits as they all surrounded their master and showered him in their juices, showing off their love for him in a liquid form.

/

Misaki was the first to offer herself as his first time or more like she insisted that she be the first with a tense and dominating stare she gave him if he were to say no, as she was their superior officer and his most trusted aide she stated firmly. Her Master was not one to complain as she looked stunning with her exotic Japanese looks and with her luscious raven black hair to her cobalt black eyes that shimmered as she stared lovingly into his eyes when sat on his lap as he held her close before she screamed as he penetrated her tight and wet folds.

It was right there and then that the Master discovered that they were all virgins, all of them offering themselves to him willingly. Being constructs, they were only created by his power until recently, only that they wanted to repay him in full as soon as they breathed new life. He felt… happy, that they all trusted him so much that they were offering something so important that they wanted their first time to be with him of all people.

But Misaki didn't seem to care about all that irrelevant nonsense as she bounced up and down on his extended length, her juices mixed In with the blood from her broken hymen pouring out like a leaky pipe but her pussy gripping on tightly, desperately milking him for all that he was worth.

He didn't show any signs of stopping as he grabbed massive handfuls of her soft firm buttocks each, his index fingers just teasing and playing with her puckered anus that was tensing at the attention he was giving it that made Misaki mewl and had her collapse into his chest, feeling the smooth, sweaty, soft, yet powerful and firm six pack abs, as well as her bountiful mounds with areolas as hard as diamonds against his chest, had aroused him even more as he felt them grinding against his chest as he pounded into her relentlessly.

"Ohhh!~ MASTER!~" she wailed as she came from the massive length gouging her insides, her folds constricting together tightly that made Zachary grunt as he felt another load coming and released it as he slammed it deep into her aching pussy as Misaki quivered from the pleasure of feeling her Master's warmth inside her.

As soon as Misaki slid off of his length with his seed and her juices oozing out of her sex and then collapsed on the bed, his tool's tenacity and endurance held with unwavering resolve. The rest of the personnel present in the room witnessed in awe as their Master stood up, his tool refusing to soften as Zachary still felt the lust and the adrenaline still alive and kicking, so he focused on his next vic- volunteer.

/

The Doctor was being restrained with her legs hooked against her head as her Master and lover pounded into her like a Jackhammer into the bed, headrest slamming against the wall with every thrust he made. Her hair was a mess of golden strands dripping in sweat and her face devolved into a face that could only be described as an Ahegao expression or something close to it as fluids splashed about against their crotches. As soon as their climax came, Julia Locked her legs around his form and The Boss held her body against his like a protective cocoon as Julia squealed in delight and left several noticeable scratches on his back, while he was pouring a torrent of his seed deep within her.

/

The Sandy blonde had her face pressed into the pillow as she screamed in pleasure and joy at having her asshole raided by her Master's thick and long cock just stretching it apart. Her Master was fucking her relentlessly in a doggy style position before he hoisted her up by her athletically toned waist and pressing her back into his chest so he could kiss her neck and then claimed her lips greedily with his own. Her hips sashaying against his crotch like a mesmerising hypnotic snake dance as he felt the way her insides move with her dancing whilst he was still plugged inside her.

Before their dance duet could come to it's climax, The Boss growled huskily and grabbed firmly onto her thighs before lifting her up and pulling her close into his chest, his arms locked behind her knees as he let gravity do most of the work as she descended onto his cock right down to the base with every slide. She gritted her teeth together when one of her colleagues latched her mouth right where her pussy is, the double attention to both sensitive areas sent her right over the edge as she orgasmed right into her mouth before she felt her master erupt deep inside of her anal passage.

/

Three girls with the biggest tits and asses all lined themselves up with their backs turned and asses facing him as he each took turns with all three of them. Wet slapping sounds were heard as he plunged deep into their folds and their asses slapping against his waist. Whilst he was committed to the one pussy he was fucking, he didn't neglect the other two that was begging for attention as he reached down with his hands and inserted his fingers deep within them, each of them like putty in his hands as they drew nearer and nearer to another climax.

As soon as he filled one up, he moved right onto the next, eagerly waiting to be joined up together.

/

Teeth were gnashed together as the last load was unleashed that night, his fluids splashing onto their skin soaked in sweat and already stained by a cloudy liquid by the previous acts of their passionate mating activities as if he was marking them as his and his alone.

Their expressions clearly telling how pleased and satisfied they were, the happiness they felt in that moment when they felt the feeling of their Master's warm seed covering their skin and resting deep inside of them in all three of their holes. Although they were explicitly told that they should consult with the Doctor about Medication before they did the deed with their Master, Doctor's strict orders unless the Boss orders otherwise.

Zac could only wheeze out a small cloud of air before collapsing face first into Misaki's awaiting arms and bountiful chest, despite the way their bodies were incredibly sweaty and covered in his and their juices as her beloved Master knocked himself into a deep, pleasurable yet exhausting sleep. Misaki and the rest of the female Personnel smiling all the time as their Master slept, eyeing him lovingly. What nobody but them knew was that during that moment, their Runes appeared on their foreheads, pulsating like an ambient light where it was also like a third eye opening to gaze on the scene itself, before they all snuggled up close to him, each of them claiming a naked body part of them to sleep on and they all went sleep themselves, naked by their Master's side, surrounding him affectionately, protectively and possessively. Unbeknownst to Zachary, were the Runes on their foreheads were glowing ever more vibrantly and humming with ever-increasing power from the bonds they shared.

 **(LEMON END)**

* * *

 **(Zac's POV)**

I finally managed to pry myself from out of their strong grip, luckily they didn't wake up as I carefully made my way through the obstacles of naked hot women, before grabbing what clothes that were mine I could find and put them on quickly before anyone of them could wake up.

I managed to find a spare clean shirt and trousers for me to put on, and I then rushed out of the door with haste but seemingly dragging myself out the door with a limp and down the stairs because of the exhaustion and numbness I was feeling as I made my way to the Kitchen.

In the Kitchen of my house sat a gentlemen by the dining room table as I came in limping and stumbling down the stairs as I was pulling my self along the banister, and then eventually struggling to sit on the seats when my legs were numb, arms are worn out and body exhausted, and there he was chuckling at my suffering like I had told the best joke in the world and it set him off in a fit of hoarse giggles and chuckles as he saw the haggard state I was in.

"Well, the Hero returns with a… well I would say spring in his step, but shouldn't it be the ladies that come out of the bedroom with a limp in their step, not the lads?" The Merchant chuckled as he sat by the dining table with a cup of tea in hand and his bandanna still occupying his face.

I could only roll my eyes as I collapsed into my chair and sat down spread out from my chair by the table, arms hanging lazily over the armrests, and I could only groan at his comment. " _Fuck off_ … " I groaned before I ranted mentally with himself 'Damn ability doesn't work, I thought my energy was supposed to refresh by morning?' he wondered to himself with a frown.

"Oh aye, I imagined you did plenty of fucking with the way you've been rutting in there with them, I think the whole base might've heard you. Go on, how was it?" he chuckled at my supposed chagrin and my facial expression that gave him a dirty look before he sighed heavily.

"Well…that… happened." I could only drawl out a very vague answer as I was still in disbelief that it actually happened.

The Merchant only deadpanned in response "Well, obviously... Was there anything you said to each other?" he asked.

"Yeah…which is part of the reason why they acted the way they did" I simply answered him.

"What did you do to them?" he started to press for more detailed answers.

I only looked at him suspiciously "Lots of things…Why'd you want to know? Why don't you go ask them yourself?" I nodded my head up the stairs out the dining room.

The Merchant only raised an eyebrow at me, indicating to me of him saying 'Are you mad?' "I'm not that suicidal to ask a lady how she thought the night was with her man? I'd rather go for the safer option and ask you, much safer that way." He shrugged

At his response, I snorted "How so?"

"Men are generally loose-lipped when it comes to the topic of sex with women, they tend to believe they have the bragging rights to go on and on about this particular girl who they managed to woo and take to bed willingly with them and fuck till dawn." He explained, rather aloof and indifferent about it.

"I'm not like that." I only snorted in disdain at the thought of that, after noticing his hint of sarcasm. I know some people at my school who would do that sort of shit, why the hell would I want people to know, why should i care?

The Merchant agreed "True, you aren't like that at all. Generally, it's the frat boy pricks or rapists that do that sort of thing, but they're more than likely to have stuck it in some poor drunk girl with zero sense of her surroundings or a girl they've paid for than actually getting any girl to willingly sleep and have sex with them. You're more of a gentleman kind of guy in that regard, although that may soon change with the way they look at you and think of you now. You're a man now, Zac." he chuckled.

I raised an eyebrow at him before I had a sudden thought. "What about you?"

"Me?" The Merchant pointed at himself.

"Have you ever, you know?" I inquired to him, hinting at him about the previous topic.

The Merchant shook his head"…No, I've only been a construct summon for about a few weeks now, and I'd never sleep with a fellow brother or sister in all but blood. The other constructs will say the same as both constructed men and women in fact will never love one another that are bounded and under the same summoning contract by you. The summoned Personnel like the civvies, they may be the exception, but I probably doubt it not by much." The Merchant shook his head as he explained, much to my dashed hopes and beliefs that they could find love for themselves.

"How do I come into this? I'm not one to judge who they should or shouldn't love?" I said, puzzled and quite serious about this

"And I don't blame you for it, but you see… they're just not interested in each other like normal humans are. The males are truly committed and loyal to your cause and they respect you greatly, while the females are the same, but they hold the strongest feelings for you as their Master and Boss and I doubt normal relationships would matter to them much." He explained, while also wondering what he meant by that last part.

"And the males?" I said, my cheeks slightly growing a tinge of green at the thought of it.

"….You needn't worry about any of that" The merchant shook his head humorously as he finally answered after a seemingly tense silence. "Unless if yo-"

" _Don't even think of finishing that sentence_." I warned him in a semi-threatening tone as I felt the bile rising up from my throat as he raised his arms in mock surrender. "I am not like that, in anyway." I said sternly before sighing as I hit my head on the backrest of the chair and sighed in relief. "So why won't they get romantically involved with each other, I won't stop them from chasing after a relationship." I said, puzzled by this.

The Merchant only shrugged and shook his head "Won't do it, Boss, not unless if you order us to that is. For us Constructs, the only love we need is the one from our Master… well, the females strongly believe that, whereas the males, our loyalty and dedication to our Boss and Master is more than enough to leave us content with our lives, but it doesn't mean we're inept or incapable to love another woman like you just did last night, It just takes a bit more… effort and motivation on our part. However, the normal summoned civilians are as normal as normal people are, they can still love one another, but like I said as a fair warning, some of the lasses may just adopt the same mind-set as their female construct summoned counterparts." He explained.

That statement, made me come to realise the value they all had in in me, how much I am worth to them. I sighed in defeat as I nodded my head in understanding, but also made me curious and cautious by what he said about the last part, but the thought was short lived after a while before The Merchant then switched topics.

"Breakfast? You look famished, by the way." He commented as he pushed over a cup of warm milk towards me.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as my tired mind locked onto the fresh milk in a cup "Thanks" I nodded in gratitude and took the milk from him and gulped it down greedily and immediately i felt refreshed. "I would love a good breakfast right about now," I said, and speaking of the devil… Alice appeared with a large plate of a full English breakfast filled with a whole batch of delicious protein and energy. I turned to thank Alice but she already rushed back to work by the Kitchen countertop with her Mother, not once did she look me in the face or utter a single word. Raising a brow at her strange behaviour, I decided to pass it off for now and focus on the delicious and savoury looking breakfast.

"Oh, you beauty!" I sniffed as I could smell the aroma of freshly cooked breakfast from the fresh eggs, the Sausages, the bacon and the toast as well as the baked beans. "Wait, Bacon? When did we get pigs?" I asked The Merchant

"Boar actually, Boars, Pigs and Hogs are essentially the same species. Found some wandering about in the forest. We're keeping some in stock in the basement, and got one already prepared for meat distribution in the Butchers." He explained as I tucked into some of the delicious Bacon.

"Fuck me! This is even better than supermarket Bacon!" I said as I wolfed down and savoured more of this Bacon that the two maids prepared, since when and how fast did they get to be so damn good at cooking? This is amazing!

The Merchant snorted humorously "Bah!~ Anything cooked here is better than that cheap processed crap they sell in your mainstream supermarkets, considering how much potential those two have for cooking. This meat is fresh, premium quality meat you'd only find in your local butchers, but better! Just think of all the money we can make with this food! ***Rubs his index, middle finger and thumb together intensively as he looked straight into my eyes with an intense gaze that made me sweatdrop at his intensity*** **Fucking Hell!** And... What's even better about this, is that you've got two pretty lasses that have made it just for you." The Merchant said nodding his head over to the two maids that were by the countertop, both of them jumped up when mentioned and that they were caught staring at me with distinct blushes colouring their cheeks before they turned and went back to their duties.

Is it me, or did their appearances change again? Alice seems to have grown a few inches as well as her bust hip and butt seems to have grown substantially. However, when compared to her mother, Lena? She at least looked like a woman who regained her previous average weight and has gained more positive increases like a woman in her prime age from her breast that were a D that have now grown to a EE cup size as well as her butt increased in size and had a nice mature look to it that made her natural beauty stand out a bit more, not as much as the constructs but it was still a great improvement.

I could only sweat drop and wonder as to what they were thinking about and why they refused to look me in the eye as to what they could've been so shy about until the Merchant cleared his throat.

"So, now that you're free, I'd like to speak with you about something." The Merchant then changed tones and spoke in a more serious business kind of tone.

"What about?" I enquired.

"I spoke with the rescued girls…"

"You did? How are they?" I said in concern about them.

"Physically, they're fine. Mentally, it's...improving. Although I've been hearing that they've been having bad dreams lately. Your personal Doctor, Julia, she is a one of a kind, you know. It's like nothing has ever happened to them when she prepared them a bath mixed in with some kind of medicinal herbs, that it helped calm them down and healed most of their bruises, their wounds and marks that signify their poor treatment by those Goblins, all gone." He explained the past events.

"What about the…?" I tried to indicate towards a particular body part, but the Merchant understood.

"Irreversible, I'm afraid. Reversing that kind of damage to their hymen and the corrupted lifeform that rested in their womb will either take some sort of advanced Medical Science, Magic or a Miracle to get rid of that taint?" The Merchant Shrugged. "If you want to revert them back into innocent virgin maidens, you'll need to experiment with your powers a bit more, although I should warn you not to dabble in things you don't or have little understanding unless you are aware of the consequences your actions may bring." He said a in a tone that expressed his caution to which I nodded, hesitantly.

The Merchant seemed to accept that and moved on "Anyway, where was i?... Oh yeah! One of them said she was from a town called Hearth, south of the forest and the mountains."

"Yes, she did say that" I nodded in understanding, knowing who he was referring to.

"I also found out it's got a Merchant's hub there."

"Meaning?"

"Sorry, it's just that we've been stuck here for nearly 2 weeks now. We've got our food and resources, plenty of stuff to sell from our stocks and our warehouse and armoury including weapons, armour, tools and better yet, inventions and contraptions we could sell or invest there. Yet we are stuck here in the far north, barren of any civilisation for miles and we have nowhere outside our borders or any contacts and pretty much nowhere to sell some of our stocks to.

With Hearth being the closest town we can go to since the rest of the north is pretty much filled with abandoned towns and villages like this one, and abandoned forts and castles and who knows what or who occupies those ruins, be it Goblins, Orcs, Wild Tribesmen, Mountain clansmen, or wild monsters and beasts that have made it their lairs, hell I wouldn't be surprised to see the southern men have moved up to claim some of these abandoned castles for themselves." He explained.

"So you want to travel to a town and set up shop, if that's what you're asking?" I asked him, taking note of all what he said.

"Indeed, Boss…I'm sure you understand as I'm starting to grow a bit bored being cooped up here with nothing to do."

I could only chuckle at the logic he was getting at "You and me both, I'm starting to feel pretty bored myself and I want to go travelling, but not just yet. I need to do a few things before we can go."

The Merchant nodded "Take all the time you need, let me know when you're ready."

"Is there anything else you wanted to speak to me about?" I asked of him.

The Merchant nodded in confirmation "You know the AK that you brought back for the scientists in the R&D Division? Well, they successfully invented the world's first metallic Cartridge round." He announced, which made me feel quite delighted at having cartridge rounds and to finally beat the reloading speed and functionality nightmare that was all musket weapons. Ha! Take that you bastards!

"But there comes a bit of problem." he also announced, which dampened my spirits a bit.

"And that is?"I enquired.

"We simply don't have the means in producing AK-47s, they're simply way too modern and advanced to produce compared with what we've got now in regards to tools and equipment." he explained.

"Couldn't we just upgrade the workshops and the tools we got?" I asked "I mean… I've increased my summoning cap to the mid-1800s, that's like the era of the industrial revolution right there."

The Merchant only shrugged "Could do, but that's just you, wheras the entire village and the base is still currently lagging behind in technology. If we were to play catch up now, we'd be using up a lot of time, money and resources in upgrading and building Factories and researching the machines needed that are capable for the manufacturing process to produce our weapons and ammunition in bulk. The best and cheapest way to go about this is to start off right at the beginning of cartridge round firearms. At best, we can start off at weapons from the early years, before and alter years of the American Civil war, and that's about it for starters. I mean, you can summon some of the earliest revolvers from the civil war, the Colt Dragoon revolver, the Henry Repeater rifle, double barrel shotguns and the Sharps Rifle for examples. Though some of those examples came a little while later, it's still fairly simple to unlock some of them." he explained.

"Suppose" I shrugged and continued on with breakfast. "Don't I have to individually load each hole in the cylinder with gunpowder and rounds like I do with a musket but instead it's with the revolvers? I thought it was a pretty common thing in American Civil war Revolvers?" I asked.

"True, they are built like that. However, we don't necessarily need that method of reloading. Now that you've got cartridge rounds, you can upgrade those weapons that still use ball cap rounds and paper cartridges into a conversion where you can load 5-6 rounds of metallic cartridges into the cylinder or the chamber of rifles instead. The same can be said for the Sharps rifle where you can upgrade that into the later models where they can fire metallic cartridges instead of paper cartridges. However, you'd have to remodel all the firearms so that they can become compatible with centrefire ammunition instead of Rim-fire ammunition. It shouldn't be that much of a problem for you, although it will take time to develop." He explained

I grinned at the possibility of having Wild West era guns, it's like the child in me was dancing at the prospect of being Clint Eastwood back in his heyday or John Marston from the Red Dead games "Awesome! I'm game, as soon as we upgrade the workshops and blacksmith and then I'll be issuing every combat and support personnel with these guns, you included."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Boss." He chuckled before he paused as he looked over towards the foyer as he saw two new people walking in, scantily clad.

I only just managed to turn around and see who walked in until I saw Misaki draping her arms around my neck and pressed her ample bust against my back, before pressing a kiss into my left bandaged cheek that I felt through the cloth, before Julia, My personal doctor, had bent over to kiss my right cheek. I could see that she was wearing loose white button up shirt with a top buttons undone that revealed the neckline running straight down to her cleavage, she wasn't wearing a bra, only her black lingerie panties. While Misaki had come down wearing a tight Muscle/ tank top vest that clung to her chest that only came down to her mid-riff, which showed off her abs greatly. I didn't know what type of panties she had on, but I could imagine it would be something really bold.

" _Morning~"_ Misaki cooed into my neck, her expression was content and happy, like a woman in love. " _You were great last night, Master. We should all do it again next time…or maybe just you and me, sometime._ " She whispered avidly into my ear.

I could only blush behind my bandages as the memories came rushing back again, The Gamer's mind passive could only hold the dam back so far before blood could start to leak out of my nose.

"Yes, some other time, Misaki. However, that will have to come later as right now, we need to change those bandages, as we didn't get the time to change them recently and they are quite filthy from last night's… fun." The Doctor said with a sexy smirk directed at me that only made me avert my gaze to the nearest wall and my head shrinking into my shoulders. Now that she mentioned it, my bandages did smell a bit… musky, among other things that made me question if it was safe to have them on right now.

"We'll let you finish your breakfast first, as soon as you're done… meet us in the bathroom. We'll clean you and change your bandages there." They both smirked sexily and Misaki removed herself from my shoulders and I now got a look at what she was wearing for her underwear, a fucking Thong that were buried deep within her cheeks that added to her sexiness, which did it no more justice as to when she swayed her hips around tantalisingly towards the bathroom, both of them were guilty of it for that matter.

I could only rotate my head back mechanically to the Merchant, my eyes pried wide open in disbelief, this was what I was going to have to put up with now?...Although, who was I to complain about this? The Merchant only gave me the amused look and what looks to be a shit eating grin behind his bandana that covered the lower half of his face and his eyes were squinting in an amused glee.

"Best not keep them waiting then, eh Boss? The doctors will be seeing you right now" He quipped before I groaned as I slammed my head into the back of the backrest of the chair again, slumping down deeper into the chair. wishing I could just turn invisible.

* * *

After finishing my breakfast, I made my way to the bathroom and to no surprise, they were waiting for me… naked, but clad in white towels that clung onto their frame but only covered most of their modesty, but only down to their upper thigh.

I respectfully declined any advances made by them as I wanted them to focus on their task and for me to be left to my thoughts whilst they were doing their task. They both agreed, albeit reluctantly, but that didn't mean that they decided to get comfortable at my expense when they removed their towels in my presence, much to my semi-aroused chagrin.

And so I sat in the bathtub, warm water up to my waist, sat up so they had an easier time in washing my back. The water was warm and slightly tinted green and a light shade of blue as the water was mixed in with medicinal herbs and soap. They had some useful effects to it too, painkillers, sanitizers, healing effects, and leaving me feeling refreshed and energized.

Whilst they were busy, I decided to check up on my Status window, I didn't really get to see it after the battle. I was a bit out of it then. Also, I think it wouldn't hurt to see my event log… I'd imagine that there would be quite a lot going on.

 **Stats:**

 **Name – Zachary Crowshaw**

 **Age - 22**

 _ **Health points – 125 /250HP**_

 _ **Mana Points – 1000/1000MP**_

 **Strength – 15**

 **Vitality – 21 (-50% Health)**

 **Dexterity – 15**

 **Intelligence – 30**

 **Wisdom – 23**

 **Luck – 7**

 **Available Stat Points – 55**

 **Congratulations! You have been promoted!**

 **Your current rank is now:** _**Lieutenant Colonel**_ _ **. (**_ **Each promotion increases the limit of how much Personnel, Ordnance, Vehicles, ships and aircraft you can summon based on your leadership experience and combat experience)**

 **Summon Personnel -** **This summoning ability grants the ability to the user to summon creatures or in your case, Personnel. Personnel are loyal soldiers and subordinates that only answer to you. Your personnel are your very own privately owned army/servants that will never betray you. They are trained to do any roll from Combat, Engineering, Scientist, Stonemason, Blacksmith, Cook, Carpenter and all sorts. You can even summon loyal mages but they will not hold any noble statuses. And lastly, you can summon vehicles (Cavalry and beast riders, included) artillery ordnance and even ships.**

 **The amount of personnel and Arms you can summon is fixed at a certain level.**

 **The amount follows:**

 **Infantry Personnel – 600 (1 Battalion): You can assign any different roles to any of the summoned personnel judging by their current rankings or specialised rankings when training for a specific role in different combat/specialised logistical and other roles in your military force or base.**

 **Ordnance/Artillery – 125**

 **Vehicles – 250**

 **Aircraft – 100**

 **Warships/Boats – 20**

 **When these arms and vehicles are summoned, the number of people needed to operate it will also be summoned and will not be included as an additional cost to infantry personnel. Drivers/pilots of said vehicles can join the infantry personnel if their chosen vehicle is either out of action or destroyed.**

 **Logistical personnel (Combat Engineer, Communication soldier, Intelligence soldier, Officer, Supply soldier, Medic, Research and development scientists etc.) is not included in the Infantry personnel summoning cap and are summoned separately. The amount of logistic personnel that can be summoned is the amount needed to maintain a division or military base.**

 **There is no limitation on summoning small arms and heavy arms that can be operated by 2 or 3 soldiers or more.**

Hm, that does sound very useful. Summoning Personnel is very useful as I have tested it out thoroughly. Now that I have increased my tech level, my Combat Personnel's battle prowess has increased drastically. With the updated technology to 1850, I can now summon artillery and support weapons whenever and wherever I want, but at the cost of my MP and stamina, which I am not at all keen on doing as I will only do it in case if it is necessary. However, the only vehicles I could use now is horse drawn carts and wagons, but Ships are out of the question since we are about 1000 feet or more above seawater, and Airships are not feasible yet as we have yet to acquire Windstones, despite the fact we are on a giant Windstone vein that is the entire Island that is roughly the same size and distance of the United fucking Kingdom.

After musing over those new details, I read the next new update which apparently is a new title I gained from last night.

 **You have earned a new title!**

 **Lady Killer - Level 69:** **You are smooth lady killer that knows his way into a woman's heart where it does not matter about their or your looks and status to have a chance with a particular woman (Your beautiful on the inside no matter your looks) *** I gained a tic mark at that low blow* **, but with the right heart and mind you can conquer the hearts of any woman. Passively Increases your Sex Appeal, Speech/charm towards females, Romance and Sexual activities by +75% among several of the social classes of the opposite sex** **. [Civilian (100%), Nomad mages, Mercenaries and soldiers (95%), Minor Nobles (90%), Highborn/ Elite Nobles (85%), Royalty (80%) etc]** **. These numbers represent the difficulty for Lady Killer dialogues and romance events (Side Events and Main events involving missions and chance encounters) involving the opposite sex.**

 ***Pffft!***

'The Fuck!?' I spat out a lung full of air as I read that title's passive ability. 'Is this a Joke!? It has to be!? This Game System has some sick sense of humour, I swear it has! Is it trying to force a harem onto me? Despite the fact that it is seemingly obvious that i have one now!' I ranted on mentally and dumbstruck by the absurd title. 'How the hell did it become this high levelled?'

"Master, is there something wrong?" Misaki pressed a comforting hand on my shoulder that brought me out of my mental thoughts and looked into her eyes. I could see the warmth, comfort and love in those eyes, and I couldn't see any signs of deceit in those eyes of her's and Julia's.

I could get lost in her eyes, hell, I could get lost in both of their eyes… but, perhaps I've stayed in the bath for too long.

"It's nothing," I quickly denied, unsure if she actually picked up on the lie. if she did, then she hid it very well. "I think I stayed in the bath for quite a while… Listen, I've been thinking."

"About?" She inquired.

"The chat I had with the Merchant, we were talking about whether I should head south soon. Do you think I should?" I asked of her, hoping to get an honest opinion out of her.

Misaki didn't disappoint in her answer as my right hand woman. "He's not wrong in wanting to head south, as there are many advantages we can gain from heading down south and finding other civilisation and opportunities, but it also comes with its own risks. We already know that there is a civil war going on."

"True." I nodded at that

"Whether you choose to head south or not, we will always follow your decisions, for we are always with you." She said adamantly and passionately. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that as it sounded very karma neutral of her to say that. What she's saying is no matter what choice I do, she and the rest of the summoned Personnel will always follow me and my lead no matter the choices I make unless it concerns my health and safety greatly or came to bite me in the ass later on, to which they will object when necessary or they will retaliate in full force in case if my plans backfire onto me. A bit exaggerated, but I wouldn't put it past them since I had the time to get to know them for the past 2 weeks.

The last thing I did in the Bathroom was to increase my stat level after the Raid on the Goblin Village, and boy were there a lot of points to use up.

 **Name – Zachary Crowshaw**

 **Age - 22**

 _ **Health points – 175HP /350HP**_

 _ **Mana Points – 2150/2150MP**_

 **Strength – 20**

 **Vitality – 30 (-50% Health)**

 **Dexterity – 20**

 **Intelligence – 50**

 **Wisdom – 30**

 **Luck – 10**

 **Available Stat Points – 6**

That should do it, although my Vitality is still pretty bad, but overall… I should be fairly strong enough to take out individual threats on my own. After that was all done, I had my fresh bandages wrapped around my head and upper torso before I headed on out of the Bathroom and out of the House.

Before I could do that, I was met with a group of male Personnel standing closely and lined up in a square formation in the Foyer, about 30 of them. I was confused at first as to what this was all about until they all simultaneously saluted, then left the operations room without saying a word… although I did catch a glimpse of a few grins, the same shit eating grin the Merchant had plastered on his face earlier.

I could only deadpan and salute back awkwardly as I realised what that was all about before I flinched inwardly and grunted " _Fuck off_ " at their backs, but I smiled in good humor.

* * *

( **A few days later)**

I finally came out of my brooding phase and finally got off my arse and did something productive at long last… I shan't be doing that again. Fortunately, the entire Base and the village were self-proficient and able to independently work by themselves, Misaki, Julia, The Engineer and The Merchant were the ones to thank for that.

Misaki kept the training up for all of the Combat Personnel and volunteering civilian militias, as well as training future officers for my future Military Armed Forces, while also keeping tabs on the Intel Division and training them up to a suitable level for any future roles they may have. The Merchant took it upon himself to manage the Base Development Division as well as the support Division. Julia was put in charge of the Medical Division and handled all of the medical tasks and any potential injuries and sickness. And the Engineer, whose name is Berthold, handled any new construction tasks that were requested by Misaki and the Merchant in the interest of Defensive structures and productive industry.

Recently we had our first harvest of Wheat, Potatoes and Cotton. Earlier than predicted too as the Farmers were gaining Experience at an accelerated rate, with modern farming methods as well as tools and equipment as well as modern knowledge on fertilisers, their experience and rank as farmers quickly grew.

The Farm animals were also adding new additions to the farm, especially the Chickens. Milk and Eggs were in high demand and they provided us those in great quantities. The sheep also provided us with the necessary wool, along with the leather from the animals we hunted to provide for the materials for warmer clothes, due to winter being right around the corner.

Now that the crops were harvested, I ordered for more fields to be cultivated so that I can introduce new crops and food for our people. Some crops I managed to unlock through the Farmer's hard work, other seeds that I bought were from the Merchant himself, which is kind of like Pay to win in a sense, but very costly the higher and more advanced up you go.

Flax seeds were one example I bought from the Merchant, where it is the source of Linen and also can be used as a food source, a very healthy one too. Corn (Maize) was another food source I was adamant about as well as sugarcane and Rice, these three crops were some of in my opinion the most essential crops in the world…my world that is. Although I did manage to find another food source in an underground cave that we discovered not too far away near an enclosed lake where we found Salt… and no, Salt is not classed as a spice, it's actually a mineral, mined from sodium chloride or Halite (Rock salt) deposits.

However, for me to cultivate Rice and Sugarcane I will need an environment for them to grow and a parallel land that is similar to the Highlands in Scotland will not do me any favours.

Therefore, I consulted my thoughts to the Merchant and he agreed and sold me the blueprints for me to build my own greenhouse. This large glass structure is made entirely for most of the foreign herbs, crops, plants, fruits and vegetables that grow in different environments unlike the bitterly cold north and high altitudes of Albion. Here I can manage the cultivation of crops and even Herbs and spices in a virtual controlled environment. Just thinking about it made me crave for some of the spices I could make from this, such as, Paprika, Black Pepper, Chillies, chives, Basil, Cinnamon, and all sorts. Even that one spice that was worth its weight in gold, Saffron. They were not cheap, but the Merchant told me it will all be worth it... it better be.

The Merchant told me that People actually did go to war for this stuff because Spices were a luxury item or better yet it was a consumable and also a medicinal item that couldn't be produced anywhere in Europe (Halkeginia) which is something the Nobles are sure to love and indulge in. Spices aren't really a majorly important item to have as it was more about the money we can gain from it. So yes, it was really just a valuable trade more than anything. If a trade in shoelaces had as much money involved, then I am sure they would have fought a war over that. I wasn't really sure about the general Market in Halkeginian goods, but I am certain that I can make a profit off of most of what I have to offer, although I would have to be cautious, but with the war going on, I'm sure that I can slip through their notice... perhaps.

Industry wise, this area I had just realised I was neck deep in a lot of choices for me to go for concerning manufacturing and machines. There were multiple paths I could choose for industry, from textiles, steam power, Iron industry, Machine tools, chemicals, cement, gas research, glass making, Paper, Transportation, better roads, railroads… I could go on and on about this. After upgrading my tech cap, my summons page and construction menu is just flooded with structures, machines and units that are from the mid-1800s.

I now figured that I will need to bring in way more people in order to man one of these… large factories, so I think I will need to start off small. So I will settle in upgrading the workshops and adding several extensions to include machinery for other things as well as a mid-1900s equivalent of an advanced Foundry for the smithy. First of all, I need to introduce advanced tools and machinery as well as steam power. Manpower is still needed to man those factories, but not as much as you may think. MY summons should be fine with it, although I can't say the same for the rest of the people in Halkeginia, whereas the Common folk will not understand it and begin to fear it and probably come to hate it when they start to believe that their jobs could be under threat like a common Luddite **(Urban Dictionary: One who fears technology or new technology, as they seem pleased with how things currently are... "Why can't everything just be the same?" or "They took me Jerb!").**

The Nobles will either probably see the profit in this, or will still be confused by how it works and then eventually may come to fear its potential when they discover that it does not run on magic and could also mean that the commoners are not as useless as they strongly believed as per what their teachings about magic decrees. The Mages are seen as the protectors and the shepherds of modern Halkeginian society and they are the self-proclaimed guardians of public order among the common people. If the common people start to learn to stand on their own two feet, the lesser their reliance and their faith in magic and nobility becomes, then they may seek to control this new industry or destroy it completely as it could threaten their way of living.

However, this particular topic is one that I seriously believe that the Holy men in their churches and pristine and majestically tall cathedrals will have the worst reaction out of all of them along with the more religiously fanatical noble mages. It Depends on how similar they are to the Catholic Church in the dark ages where they could or would likely denounce the use of machines as heresy, simply because it goes against their reasoning and teachings. The commoners have always been viewed as the inferior class, barely worth their time to most mages, but they see themselves as the way forward, providing guidance and protection for the lesser born like little lost sheep. To give them the tools for the common folk in order to stand on equal ground among the mages, is a reality they cannot accept and will outright refuse to accept it, even if it were to slap them in the face.

6000 years of Halkeginian history following the traditional Brimric calendar is a solid piece of evidence that points towards this fact that they had many chances to uplift themselves, yet they didn't. Why would that be? How did it take them 6000 years to get to the point of an era similar to the 1600s of the Earth renaissance period? After we ditched the old ancient calendar for the new one after Baby Jesus was born, it only took us 1300 years to invent the first gun, 1885 years it took for the first true automobile, 1969 years for the first man on the moon.

6000 years is a long time for a civilisation such as Halkeginia to stay the same as they are now since they were first formed as kingdoms all those years ago, where in my history, civilisations rise and fall all the same, but they advanced far more quickly and their reigns lasted shorter than their Halkeginian counterparts before another sprouted up to take its place.

But to be more fair, civilisation did start thousands of years ago in my world, and according to Misaki and the Merchant, archaeologists and historians tried to guess that Civilisation technically started around about 3100BCE, but we cannot accurately say when it really was. So if we did a bit of rough calculation and add the years up by 6000 years starting from 3100 BCE, you will have the year 2900CE, minus that by 882 years and then you will have the present year of 2018, the year I last remembered it being. So pretty much, if this is true we are technically 882 years ahead of them in terms of progression if we were to compare our calendars together, but there is the fact that the 6000 year window marks the time when Magic was first formed, so that means that civilisation existed way before then, when that really was?... I haven't a fucking clue as it could be another few thousand years for all I know.

 **(...o.O**... **I have no clue if that made any sense? oh well)**

Anyway, now that we have begun industrialising we first started with modernising our military equipment, again. The Armour can stay, for now, as it is mostly there for primitive melee and projectile weapons, but the primitive firearms and magic will still cause a bit of a headache for me in terms of protection.

But weapon production is where it is all at, in just a few days after we invented the first metallic cartridge round, we set to work in making our first revolvers, Repeaters, Breech loading rifles and Break action Shotguns after providing the Base Development teams and the R&D teams the designs to base the weapons on and to fully design the weapons into supporting centrefire ammunition after the R&D teams finished their work on the 7.62×39mm round.

After a few days of research, my teams have finally finished with the design and have unlocked several weapons for me to summon and for my units to produce after I designed and altered the designs of the weapons to fire modern cartridge round. I could now summon and make the Sharps Rifle that can fire the 45-70 round, Colt Dragoon revolver and the Colt Walker (Converted into a centre-firing 6 metal cartridge round revolver) that can fire a .38 special, the Henry repeating rifle shoots the 357 round, and lastly, I included an iconic weapon that was seen mostly around in the Wild West era, the break action double barrel Shotgun also known as the Coach Gun that fires the 12 gauge shotgun buckshot or slug brass or copper shells.

I spent the next 2 days in learning these weapons, getting a good learning grip on how to handle and fire these guns. And the feeling of a real gun with a modern cartridge in my hand, it felt heavier than I expected it to be. The Revolver, while quite uncomfortable and awkward, makes an undeniable impact within me as I can safely say that I trust this weapon a hell of a lot more than my muzzle loaded pistols and even my custom made crossbow. I just had to have two Revolvers around my waist in specially made holsters made of brown leather as I simply couldn't resist the thought of trying a revolver Ocelot spin trick, which admittedly played out better in my head than it did in reality in my room when I lost one of the revolvers out the window.

My combat personnel were soon to be equipped with these weapons, so for now I summoned each weapon myself for a team of 60 elite bodyguards for the journey. These were by far the most elite and experienced personnel that have fought against the Goblins, Including Misaki, the Merchant (Even though he wasn't present), Sarah (The Sandy Blonde who now had her arms tattooed into Tribal patterns), The Big Russian dude, Oleg, and the Engineer, Berthold for examples. I gave them the weapons and told them to practice and train with them until the time we leave for the south.

Their learning curve had been something to behold as they learned a lot more quickly than I expected. They first started off like average normal people with the basic knowledge of how to fire a gun based on visual experience, but they eventually learned the feel of it as well as learning the mechanics of firing and reloading these weapons. There were several types of shooters amongst them already, the Sharpshooters already became acquainted with the Sharps rifle as they could accurately shoot targets well over 500-900 meters away with a marksman sight fixed upon it. There were some shooters that can shoot like the Wild West cowboys with the way they slap the hammer back to achieve rapid fire with great accuracy, Misaki as well as a few others could do this too. There were also some that could shoot from horse back with the Henry rifle, Coach Gun, and the revolvers with almost pinpoint accuracy. And lastly there were shooters that mix it up with a bit of Close quarters combat with a gun in one hand and a melee weapon in the other.

As soon as I had everything done and sorted, I myself and my 60+ Combat Personnel assigned to us on the journey including Combat Engineers, Scouts/Rangers and Combat Medics. I agreed with The Merchant about heading down to Hearth now, although I was a bit put off by the distance and the terrain we will be travelling through. Not to mention, it could take us days in getting there, possibly less when on Horseback, but it could take longer considering the rough terrain and the fact that we will be travelling with a convoy of caravans, carts and wagon loads of goods, equipment and supplies that the Merchant insisted taking with us along the journey there.

There were two roads we could take according to our scouts. The Road leading through the Forest was the quickest, but it was old, abandoned, uneven and rough. it hadn't been used for a very long time as the overgrowth had pretty much consumed most of the road with weeds, overhanging tree branches and roots sticking out of the road.

Mounds of dirt even covered the roads along the way, evidence of past landslides and even sinkholes had been responsible for the roads destruction, the thought of what could cause a sinkhole was actually a pretty terrifying thought considering the land we were currently on. Fallen trees even blockaded the roads due to Landslides, rot, or even harsh winds had been responsible. Not only that, but there were also suspected to be roadside threats along the way according to my scouts, didn't know who or what we could expect, but I was certain that bringing at least a platoon along with me was the right decision.

Another good decision was bringing along those Engineers to deal with Obstacle clearance, along with producing them the tools to clear away obstacle such as Machetes, Sledgehammers, Axes and hatchets, Entrenching tools and one invention that made them very effective in obstacle clearance that can also be weaponised, Dynamite. It was actually pretty simple in making the dynamite seeing that I have a Witchers Equivalent of an explosive device that uses a fuze. With Nitro-glycerine being more powerful than the Black powder as it came around in 1847, where the Dynamite was invented in the 1860s. It was actually a cake walk from there.

Maybe we could get there quicker if we went along the coastal road around the forest, despite it being the longest route there, but that road is even worse as it eventually leads to a road that detours through a mountain pass that is literally hanging off the bloody ledge off the island that makes the Bolivian Death Road pale in comparison. Not only that, I heard that there were nests there of deadly avian and draconic creatures in the mountain passes, yes, fricking dragons and other birds of...actually I don't even know what they are, not that I wanted to know. If you can picture the scene… then yes, that's the reason why I decided to go for the forest route.

While the forest route was undoubtedly a much safer option, the obstacles along the way proved to be quite a headache. What should'ce taken at least a few days through the forest, took us nearly a week to clear the way. Not only that, there were even roadside threats to be cautious off, Goblins, Ogres, Trolls, Orcs, and Wild Grey Wolves, but they weren't the only threat that frequently appeared beside the roads.

* * *

"Fire in the hole!"

 ***BOOM!***

And yet another road block cleared. This time a rock-slide had buried the road so deep that had also uprooted a few trees along the way from the large powerful boulders racing down the steep slope smashing into them. We had to use up at least several stacks of Dynamite to clear this one up, and stand the way further back than usual.

The Dynamite worked a treat, plus it was also a very satisfying spectacle to witness, but only when used responsibly. Not sure all of the woodland critters and the forest's inhabitants would agree though, not with all the explosions they've been hearing the past few days with every few miles we've come across a new obstacle that blocked our path.

There were some occasions where I regretted having to stay with the convoy, but I was the one who volunteered for this trip, along with others who were my strongest loyal soldiers and support personnel. I could've just sent the engineers and the scouts first, but noo~, I just decided to go with it anyway and I've been stuck in this fucking forest for days, clearing up landslides of dirt, debris, fallen trees, digging our convoy out of the thick and sludgy mud, navigating through myriads of swamps and bogs, avoiding or shooting the fuck out of gigantic swamp crocodile like monsters and cutting a path through overgrown branches and overgrowth.

This was our sixth consecutive controlled explosion we enacted today, and I suspect there will be a lot more to be expected for the rest of the day, the day after, the day after tomorrow, and perhaps the following day soon after.

So after tweaking around with my new guns that were two Dragoon revolvers, a Henry Repeater and a coach gun, I was starting to get incredibly, mind numbingly bored. Despite sitting through these controlled explosives which were always fun and all, but they eventually got a bit tedious after a while. With the noise we were making, I wouldn't doubt that Hearth would've heard us coming by now.

I was sitting in the same wagon with a canvas over the top that the Merchant who was driving and leading the convoy where I was in the passenger seat right beside him and Misaki sticking close to our wagon on her Horse, her armour being a superior crafted Feline Armour from Witcher 3.

This had to be the most boring road trip I've ever been on. Considering that this is a fantasy world, I expected to see… more out of it. All I've seen is just forests and more forests with bits of streams, humid swamps, and overgrown plant life which to some I've never seen before (Not that I cared much for it, but Julia on the other hand revelled in it) along the way with a few bits of Goblins here and there, but not much else part from some monsters we shot along the way that mostly tried to ambush us along on the way. I can see this part of nature anywhere else in the UK and parts of the world for that matter, excluding the monster. There is not much difference to see here... well, apart from the floating island of course, but I expected to see more…fantasy and mythology creatures, species and fantastic beasts I would've never seen or heard of before until now.

And another thing, I was stuck on a wagon loaded with spices, crops, food and bits of resources and minerals as well as a secret surprise we had in store for anyone or anything else attempting to jump us, with nothing but music to entertain myself with. Only that the music tunes were in my head that I was humming and singing under my breathe to myself from memory, which only worked 65% of the time through each song I knew off by heart or I have heard recently or enough times, especially if it were songs like AC/DC: Highway to Hell which explains my mood currently… Oh, I wish I had something to bang my head to, but I can't because music in this era is mostly boring Classical music ( **Mozart and Beethoven** ) and perhaps Operas that are performed in majestic Opera houses or glamorous concert halls that only a select and privileged few can attend. The other style of music are the ones you are more likely to hear are from the campish and eccentric travelling Bards that mostly perform out in the streets or in pubs and taverns, with their lutes and their flutes and fifes and other instruments dating back to the 1600s and The Ye olden times.

But then... a thought hit me. 'Why don't i play my own music?' A good idea, but i wasn't a musician. However *A-A-Ahem!*, With my gamer Powers, that wasn't a problem. So I was now playing... or practising to play decent music alongside the Merchant in my passenger seat of the wagon, on my new acoustic guitar trying to play Symphony of destruction. still does not sound quite good in my head, but it's steadily getting there as I've got nothing better to do.

The Merchant looked over to me and could only chuckle at my plight that I found myself in "Hey, I know what'll cheer you up, boss. I heard from out scouts that after this landslide we should be in the clear for the rest of the way out." he announced much to my joy.

"Oh, thank fuck for that!" I cried out, plonking the guitar down at my side. "I was almost tempted to go home by this point if I had to deal with another road block." I was at least feeling a bit more enthusiastic about this journey now.

"You at least could've waited for us to clear the road beforehand before we set off, but you did jump the gun a bit, but hey, at least you can manage the base while you were gone." He said and I nodded at that.

That was true, he was right about that as there was another passive and active ability I have called **Stronghold/Base Management** that allows remote access for me to manage my primary stronghold, my village and other FOBs under my direct command from a fair distance away or across the country or on the other side of the world. I was already set for the greenhouse and I ordered for several new batches of plants to be planted watered and fertilised for the next few days whilst I was away. A new plant I requested were the plants where I could gain cocoa beans and coffee beans, because I seriously wanted some right now.

After we cleared the road of any debris leftover, we were on our way again. The convoy was made of at least 8 wagons and caravans filled with mainly crops, supplies, equipment and minerals. The convoy was protected by the most experienced of my Combat Personnel that mostly were mostly made up of former Militia. I had planned for them to eventually develop into something more and then slowly integrate modern warfare knowledge, equipment, tactics and strategy into them.

All of the convoy guards were either on horseback or riding the wagons and caravans, Revolvers Lever action rifles, carbines and sabres at their sides, and ammunition and supplies in leather saddle bags. This was the first time I used horses in any combat and supporting role, not once did I try my hand at medieval warfare cavalry as I advanced much too quickly for me to even bother with it.

A few hours later through the rough and uneven terrain, it was already night time. The twin moons were up high in the sky that was clear of any clouds and the moonlight illuminated the way forward just enough for us to see what was in front of us, but I could tell that my personnel were already watching the shadows carefully and cautiously.

Soon the roads eventually began to level out and the ride became smoother and our pace quickened at an acceptable pace as we left the deep jungle like forest far behind us as the trees and brushes became less thick from the overgrowth. We were expected to leave this forest by late morning tomorrow, however…

 ***HOOT HOOT!***

That might be the sound of an owl hooting to some, but don't let that deceive you. The Rangers replicated their own language of the birds, disguising their messages being sent to the convoy whilst scouting ahead and hidden among the trees and the natural foliage. It was a clever trick for relaying messages, without suspicion, especially when the rangers and scouts were replicating the sound of a nocturnal bird at night.

Of course, I didn't know what they were saying as I didn't really have much of the time to learn it, but the Merchant was a natural at this as he was the one to teach it to the scouts and the Rangers, as soon as he heard it, he responded to them with a few short hoots of his own with his hand to his mouth in return before stopping the convoy and then turning to me.

"What's up?" I turned to him, wondering why he stopped the convoy.

"Movement up ahead." He nodded his head down the road.

"Goblins?" I took a guess.

"A young woman" He replied.

I raised my brow at that. "What's she doing in these parts of the woods this late at night?"

"Unsure, she's just sitting there bawling her eyes out by the side of the road, clutching onto a bundle of cloth in her arms." The Merchant cupped his chin through the Bandana.

"A Mother?" I debated.

"Possible, but…something doesn't seem right about this." The Merchant spoke out his concern for this as well as Misaki Nodding her head in agreement.

As much as my moral conscience was telling me that I should check up on her, but…

"Keep moving…" I ordered for the Convoy to continue our path. They both eyed me, wondering why I was ordering them to continue, but they relented and Misaki gave the order via hand signals for the convoy to continue. "Tell everyone to proceed with caution, safeties off." I spoke to Misaki and she nodded before giving another hand signal to her fellow officers that also relayed the message to the rest of the personnel.

About half a mile down the road we eventually came across this weeping woman. The young woman was clearly wearing rags and a tattered cloak, clutching onto a bundle of cloth close to her bosom.

We all looked to each other, unsure of what to do here, until I lifted myself off of the seat and climbed down from the cart.

"Boss?"

"I'm just going to check up on her" I assured him as I took out a lantern. That provided a clear view of what was in front of me.

"Boss, We can't let you go alone, at least take Misaki with you." The Merchant tried to reason with me with Misaki nodding adamantly.

"I'll be fine, she will stick close to me but also remain close to the convoy. I trust Misaki well enough to get me out of any tight spots." I assured the Merchant of my own personal safety.

Misaki's reaction was rather hidden well in the dark, but it was there as she looked visibly bashful and pleased that I had placed enough trust in her to protect my personal safety. The merchant whilst reluctant eventually relented and agreed, while the rest of the personnel stood by and kept watch. To be honest with myself, i should've at least brought a dog along... too late for regrets now.

I lit the fire in my Lantern and held it up high to illuminate the road before me, and as I walked on, I met with this young woman, possibly early twenties or late teens who still had her face hidden by a hood but with a few white silvery locks poking out of the hood. What features I could see from where I stood was that her face looked pretty pale, dirty and stained with a few small patches of blood on her left cheek. She was still weeping even by the time I walked rift in front of her, shining the light of the lantern over her.

"Excuse me, miss?" I announced myself before her.

She gasped and reeled herself back, and was trying to hide the bundle from view, protectively.

"Are you…Hurt anywhere?" I asked before I relented a few unwise words to speak of in this situation such as "Are you okay?" when it's clear that she is not, but I was trying to be the concerned stranger here.

The woman whimpered at my presence, seeing that I was a pretty tall and intimidating figure considering I was wearing mostly dark clothing and the white bandages covering most of my face but it presented my sharp burning gaze upon her with the scarred area around my eyes being visible, but it also held a rather comforting warmth in them that she seemed quite taken by.

Her lips were quivering as if trying to whisper something out, I lowered my head a bit closer to at least hear her better.

" _M-M-Ma..M-My…Mo…M…H-Hurt."_ She managed to utter through her dry cracked lips as she raised the bundle closer to me. I looked down on the bundle in her arms, I saw an opening through the bundle showing a little bit of skin of what i suspected to be a baby.

I grabbed onto a fold of the cloth to open up the bundle to reveal the baby in question… but what I saw was clearly not what i was expecting… I saw the cold dead look of the eyes that stared blankly into my own, but from a head that was too big and developed to belong to a baby. This head belonged to a body that had been severed, not long ago. The head clearly belonged to a small petite female as it was small enough to disguise the size of a baby behind a cloth, but what also caught my attention was that she had similar silvery white locks of hair as this girl in front of me.

My eyes widened in slight shock and surprise as I shot up from my position in alarm as my eyes caught the expression from this fraudulent mother staring at me, her eyes were shedding streams of tears down her face, but her lips were grinning as if it was splitting through her cheeks…but the demented looking grin seemed… forced.

Before I could turn around and warn the convoy, I suddenly found myself quickly surrounded by a large group of men bursting out of the trees and bushes and more of them came charging up and down the road to cut us off on all sides. All of them were armed with swords, spears, axes, bows and crossbows and were all wearing shoddy looking leather armour that was in such poor quality and other armour that they were lucky to have such as iron were all either battered, dented or just gained rust on its surface. I also spotted an odd couple of what appears to be mages in battle robes with battered looking armour over the robes just behind them and hiding in between some of the trees as well as some now approaching me on horseback.

"Halt! In the name of Reconqusita and House Livingston, you are all placed under arrest by Count Charles Henry Livingston of Hearth, Son of the Duke Malcom Livingston of Abbadon!" The man on horseback declared who seemed that he was the said appointed leader of this group of what appears to be road side bandits or hired grunts.

I could only look at this man in disgust. This man is the leader and had called for his arrest? Who looks like he was having trouble breathing with how fat he was. He looked also seem to be a fairly young adult perhaps in his 30s or something, but the chubbiness in his cheeks betrayed that line of though as he looked to be in his middle ages as his hair that was caked in grease and sweat was already thinning and his hairline already receded to the point that he looked around about in his 40s as his scalp was 60% visible. His facial hair was just a rather pointy handlebar moustache and bushy beard trailing down to cover his neck that no doubt looked quite like a toad that croaked. And his garish sky blue doublet and white breeches and brown polished boots looked as if it was about to burst and the fact that it seems to be missing a few buttons on it.

"I mean no offence, sir…but whatever for?" I asked politely, to at least have the common courtesy of asking politely.

The Noble could only scoff at my presence as he observed my appearance."You tell me, loyalist scum! Nobody's used this road for centuries, and we find you secretly using this road with a company of armed men and…women? Ha! It appears King James and Prince Wales have gone truly desperate for them to conscript women! To think that there are women so delusional to think they can wear the trousers of a soldier, women have no place here on the battlefield, they belong at home in a kitchen and bearing us men offspring!" he guffawed as well as the rest of his men that followed soon after whilst making rude and lewd gestures towards the female combat personnel. Their expressions didn't show much outwardly as they held their faces in a calm, relaxed and alert expression fit for a professional poker player, but inwardly… they were livid, me included… **'Fucking Degenerate! nobody insults my comrades in my presence!'** … okay, that was some pretty dark thoughts there, but i couldn't help but agreeing with them, for what right does this man have to insult my precious friends like that.

"I think there's been a mistake. You see, we came from a village up north." I tried to reason with them.

"Up north you say? You're not part of them savage Highland Tribes are you" the man riding next to the fat man who had a stern expression but his face looked a gaunt and lanky man with slick brown hair down to his shoulders who pointed his long grey Battle Wand that looked like a rapier at me, foci already focused in the stick, ready to be released at any moment.

"Calm down, Lieutenant! These peasants are obviously not part of them savages. They are wearing armour far too fancy and advanced than those sorry saps." The fat oaf chuckled to himself, waving off the suspicion as he didn't believe them to be from those savage hill tribes as we looked far too civilised. "Though I must say, they look far too fancy to be given to common scum like these curs."

"I agree..." The lieutenant scowled a bit more and turned to the whole convoy that glared back at him unflinchingly. Whilst the looks they were given him unnerved him a bit, he still relayed his voice out to them. "You say came from the North? Who is your Lord?" He ordered.

The group said nothing, and just when he was about to lose his patience with them…

"I am" the lieutenant and the Nobleman turned their heads to look down at the commoner that they saw in me, a man wrapped head to arms and mid torso in bandages and wearing a reinforced leather Duster/trench coat **(Fallout new Vegas NCR Ranger Duster with an improvised armour vest, flak jacket on the inside.)** and protective dark grey cowboy trousers and blakc combat boots.

"You?" The Noble's lieutenant spat out accusingly and sceptically, to whom I nodded in confirmation before the fat oaf chortled before asking. "Where's your wand then? And are those firearms and muskets by your sides? Pah! What sort of Noble are you to use guns?" He openly mocked me for my choice in weaponry.

"Who says I'm a noble?" I tilted my head to the side before he and the rest of the men looked at me for a moment before they began round of laughter again.

"So you really are just a commoner then?" he raised his brow in amusement before he sneered at me. "Well then, our mistake. This makes it easier for us, in fact." He could only chuckle before he noticed that I wasn't paying much attention to him but I was more focused on the girl.

The girl was still sitting by the side of the road, she was still crying and she still had that Joker like smile on her face. Her eyes were empty and broken, but filled with pain, despair and anguish deep inside. It appeared she didn't know what she was doing wrong as she still held onto the decapitated head like it was something precious to her that had lost the cloth blanket and the whole head was smothered in blood with terrified expression on the head's face before the head had been severed. The whole scene made one disturbing moment for me to witness that would've made me throw up my supper from earlier.

The Noble noticed this and sneered in disgust at this clueless and clearly addle minded woman. "Don't make that kind of face at me, you stupid filthy whore!" The fat noble sent a water whip at the young woman's face that sent her crashing down on the floor, hitting her head on the tree's bark behind her and knocking her out.

I could only clench my knuckles and my teeth together as i felt the anger rushing through my veins as he so callously treated this girl, but I relented from whipping a gun out in retaliation. "What was that about, who is she?" I requested tersely, intervening as soon as the count could continue any further.

"Why should it matter to you? She's just some Loyalist whore that dared to stand against the true rulers of Albion. She and her wretched peers, her family and her friends dared to stand against our mighty, honourable and noble cause. She and her heretic family paid the price of course, and she was arrogant enough to think she can stand against us alone? Well…" The Nobleman's grin turned sadistic and disgusting as his eyes glinted from the perversion and depravity he revelled in. "She was actually rather simple to break, really." He cackled.

"She does not deserve this" I objected towards this rotten man's views.

"Mind your tongue scum! So you reveal your true colours, showing concern for some traitorous whore!...Oh, who am i Jesting, of course you would! And for your information, we only had a bit of fun with her, so what!? It's not our fault that she broke easily when we executed her mother and hung her father for her heresy before we had little fun with her too." The Count simply shrugged as if he wasn't at fault like some petulant child. "Besides, she played her role of Damsel in Distress well enough don't you think? She does have her uses, just like how I taught her." He grinned, repulsively.

I could only stand there, my eyes burning in cold hatred that I felt in contempt for this rotten and depraved degenerate. To use this woman for his own gains… was sickening for a modern 21st century Earth-born Englishman to witness something this monstrous. I wasn't even sure if I was in the right canon universe of Familiar of Zero anymore, just some twisted nightmare I suddenly found myself in. Did Saito witness any of this when he came here? if not? then he was living the good life.

"What's in there?" The Count nodded towards the cart.

I didn't answer as I was still silently seething in silent rage, but the Merchant provided the answer to the question. Worthy goods we bring from our village. Somethings that might interest ya, My lords. We have everything from Crops, Iron, food, weapons, Armour and all sorts to sell at Hearth, even spices." He said with his charming business tone to at least negotiate through business that made me raise an eyebrow at him. I don't know why, but I had a feeling that his silver business tongue will not work here, and a part of me wished he didn't reveal that last part.

"Crops, Iron and weapons you say? And even spices!?" The Nobles eyes widened, but the count were more glinting and salivating out of his fat chops before he hummed in interest before he spoke closely to his Lieutenant. "We rarely get any spices. The only place that is known to sell in abundance is Rub-Al-Khali, and they're expensive! How did these peasants get a hold of such valuable items!?" After he was finished conversing with his subordinate, he then turned back to the bandaged man with a pleased false mock-smile that was meant to resemble one of gratitude. "I see…very well. We are more than happy and we thank you for your contributions, so we'll be taking it off your hands now and be putting it to good use. We appreciate your generous donation" He declared, not even interested in browsing through the products, nor was he being very sincere about it.

"Excuse me?" I interjected suddenly. "We never said we were donating. We're here for business, not charity." I spoke in disbelief at the audacity of his comment. He was clearly extorting me for all of the valuable products I own. All of them would no doubt prove useful for their war against the Royalist Faction as well as fetch a hefty price to line their own coffers. It's no doubt they would recognise that fact as we had Food, Crops, Armour, Weapons, supplies, Medical equipment and spices. Spices also existed here, but a majority of them were very rare as it seemed, and also incredibly valuable to them, almost as much as or worth more than gold is.

The Nobleman scoffed, waving off his insisting response to his declaration. "Did you not hear me, I said-" he was about to repeat himself, this time more sternly, before The Merchant decided to cut him off again, clearly he was not having any of this. If it's one thing he hated, it was thieves and people who refused to pay. He's the one who sets the rules for his kind of business, not them.

"We know what you said, stranger. We heard you the first time. What our Boss meant was are you making a transaction for our products and stocks of spices, supplies and food, or are you seizing them off our hands by force and we get nothing in return?" The Merchant asked off of the nobleman as if accusing him of a crime that he is blatantly committing.

The Lieutenant raised the sword-wand at my person again and focused his willpower through the wand, threatening me to get the point across as he realised the value they had in me. "What do you think, Peasant? Do not mistake this as a robbery… this is a requisition order. As required by law, all citizens under the newly established Holy Republic of Reconquista are to requisition every asset that is necessary when requested to assist with the war effort against the Royalists into driving out those incompetent fools and in securing our future in uniting all of Halkeginia! Now that you understand, step aside and give up everything you have in those carts, now! Or else we will have to use force!" The lieutenant ordered severely as the Count sneered while also smiling smugly on top of his high horse and I could see that the men were starting to draw out their swords from sheathes and focusing their bows and crossbows at us, as well as the rare appearances of muskets somewhere in the crowd, just to get the message across clearly that this was non-negotiable, plus I could sense that they were eager to spill blood and steal our hard work for themselves.

"We're not part of any citizens of Albion or your Reconquista, we are our own people and we follow our own motives. We do not answer to you and your made up laws because it is not our laws to follow and obey like slaves." I objected to this strongly, but the mage was not having any of it.

Words were on the tip of his tongue and the willpower was gathered at the tip of his wand as I could feel the heat building up from the wand. I looked into his eyes and I noticed that he could've torched me alive at any moment.

"Whether you are born on Albion or from the other Kingdoms or even that Barbaric Germania, it matters not since you are on our land now. Last chance… Give us everything you own, and maybe I will consider being lenient on your punishment for your defiance towards your betters" The lieutenant growled, one more step and he would surely murder me in cold blood.

What would a normal person do in this situation? Would they just… give everything they had to the bully? Maybe…well, it's what I've done since school… Every school year since I was 10, I just... gave up. Nothing's changed. I'm still seeing myself in a similar position here than the weak, crybaby me back then. I don't know why, but… reminiscing that long and painful shitty past…woke something up inside me… a fire in the darkness, burning with hatred…whispering to me…" **No more!** "

I could only sigh, understanding that further talk is useless at this point before I accepted his response. "Oh, **very well.** " I shrugged before I gave them all a dark look before dropping the lantern by my feet. As soon as the lantern clunked to the ground, the area surrounding my upper torso and face darkened as they could barely see what happened next as I whipped my revolver out of its left holster and cocked the Hammer back before delivering an accurate shot through the lieutenant's skull.

 ***Bang!***

The gunshot was so loud, louder than a musket, as well as several times more powerful, accurate and devastating as the revolver I had was loaded with five .38 special rounds in the cylinder. The flash briefly illuminated the surrounding area in front of me as well as revealing my face briefly showing off the steel look in my eyes as I delivered the killing shot into the lieutenants head as the back of head exploded as the round penetrated straight through as it entered through his left his left eye socket and then he slumped to the side fell off of the horse.

The Nobleman and his men all jumped up startled, but no more than the nobleman as he failed to react fast enough to stop this man from killing his loyal subordinate as he felt his blood splatter against his cheeks.

Before he could react, I quickly pulled the hammer back again and this time I shot his horse in the head, ***Bang!*** blowing chunk of its skull and flesh form its head as it collapsed lifelessly on its side. The Noble was about to pull out his wand but as the horse was shot… he too fell with the horse as it fell. As soon as he and the horse landed on the ground, his foot was trapped in place in the stirrups as the horse fell. Unfortunately for him, the whole horse landed on his leg, crushing it underneath all of the horse's weight.

The Nobleman howled in agony as he felt his bones being crushed by the weight, he screamed so loud that it echoed throughout the whole forest. He then cursed to all of his men that stood there like a dumb flock of sheep in shock. "Don't just stand there, you fucking idiots! Kill them! Kill them all!" he screamed and swore incoherently as the pain was too much to bear.

The rest of the men all blinked back into reality and were all about to charge until I gave the order of "Weapons Free!" was when Misaki and the rest of the combat and supporting personnel drew out their weapons and open fired upon every hostile threat in the enemy group. Misaki whipping out a Henry repeater from of its holster attached to the saddle, cocking the lever back and forth, loading a new round into the chamber and fired upon the nearest enemy in the neck that was about fire a crossbow bolt at her Master.

It was now a free for all as every weapon was trained at every enemy they could see. All combat personnel were trained extensively on all firearms, to the point they could shoot just like the Wild West gunslingers. Misaki emptied her Henry repeater just as fast as she could yank the lever down to feed another bullet into the chamber and kill or critically wound every single one of these scum.

Other personnel on horseback or on the wagons in the convoy like Sarah whipped out her own revolvers and started laying down her own rapid fire shots whilst dual wielding and pumping out rounds into seven charging men with spears and swords. The Merchant just reached inside of his coat and whipped out a sawn off shotgun and blasted the nearest bandit that tried to climb onto his wagon and slice his head off, but paid for it in return by getting his head blasted off before the Merchant retreated inside of the wagon. Julia pulled out her own Sharps Rifle from within her medical caravan and accurately took out one of the Musket men that were in the process of reloading after he managed to shoot one of ours off his horse, I had no idea if he was dead or seriously injured as the shot appeared to have struck his shoulder.

* **BOOM!***

As everyone focused mostly on the fodder that were nearby, I discovered that barely any people were focusing on the ranged opponents as I quickly found myself being sent to the ground before a fire bolt was launched from somewhere behind the trees on our left side. The concussive force of the explosive fire magic slammed into the second wagon in the convoy and then setting fire to the third.

I looked up as I felt myself being lifted up by my shoulder as Misaki and Sarah rushed over to me and retrieved me and escorted me to safety behind the cover of some trees further back. My senses were stricken hard as my hearing went deathly quiet as this high pitched squealing noise was all I could hear and my mind went slightly numb from the numb in my head and the scars. I couldn't even feel the fact that my head was moving about because Misaki and Sarah were desperately patting out the fire that was consuming part of my bandages on my head.

Raising my shaky eyes I can see the carnage that was ensuing, the Personnel firing all of their bullets ended up switching to their melees, either on Horseback or dismounting from their horses and wagons to engage enemy opposition that likewise were more used to traditional medieval warfare.

More men were arriving in waves and they too were armed with basic gear that a rather poor foot soldier would have. Eventually they would both clash up close and personal, but these men were barely soldiers trained for the harsh and brutal job of soldiers. They clashed like two opposing forces, clearly trying to rip and tear each other part, but the opposition against us were not expecting such ferocity in their attacks in overpowering us and we kept the pressure and we were now pushing through their human wall before it devolved into a team Deathmatch. They used anything from their fists and their legs to whatever weapon they carried on them from blades, spears and maces to prevent them from overpowering them, but it was futile effort as we had the same idea,but to a more ferocious and brutal effect.

Our side clearly had the better weapons, equipment and armour while the nobleman's own militia just had the basic armour like leather armour and brigandine as well as weapons requisitioned from blacksmiths, but their armour didn't protect them from seemingly anything even with some of our cavalry riders with sabres by their side charging at the feeling soldiers where one had had bisected a man from his shoulder with a well-aimed strike.

But what made me overlook this whole carnage was acrss the road and up a steep slope overlooking the area and not too far away where these mages were taking cover behind the trees barraging us with pure magic created for battle.

"Insolent dogs! You dare to resort to such cowardice! I will slaughter you all here like the dogs you are!" one mage shouted out to us as he charged up another fire spell from his staff with a red crystal on the end that was steadily building up another deadly fire spell.

Seeing the incoming danger I mustered up enough sense and Pulled out my Henry Repeater and took aim at the mage, but due to the ongoing chaos I couldn't concentrate and my aim was shaky due to the previous explosion. When I fired, it was barely accurate as the shot missed my intended target but instead did its job by destroying the crystal where it exploded in a bright red fireball, shattering the crystal into many sharp and jagged pieces where many of the shards just exploded into hundreds of more tiny shards into the mage's face and eyes, cutting deep within both.

"ARGH! By Brimir! My eyes! AHHH!...I can't see!" he cried as he collapsed onto the ground, flailing in agony as he felt many of tiny crystal shards and dust enter his eye socket. It wasn't a kill shot, but it definitely knocked him out of the fight.

The fight was beginning to pick up as several magic blasts o fire and wind as boulders being launched that landed near the leading wagon reinforcements were seen charging down the roads as the enemy had cavalry incoming, launching spells that were barraging us from a distance. They were only 7 incoming but they were all mages.

Before I could rally the personnel upfront, I heard a mechanical clunk from the leading Wagon as the Merchant reappeared from the Wagon whilst setting up a crude tripod from within the wagon and fixed a new support weapon onto the tripod as the roof of the wagon opened up and fell off the wagon.

The weapon itself was coloured in black and gold, and had several rotating barrels operated by a hand crank with a 40 round box magazine that feeds in 45-70 rounds into each of the rotating barrels. This was a fairly advanced form of support gun that paved the way for automatic machine guns.

The Merchant grabbed tightly on the crank and began turning the crank repeatedly before each barrel lit up a hail fire of bullet down the road. The impact of each round was devastating as well as merciless as it tore trough each of their armour into scrap and their flesh into mince as large pools of blood and gore pooled inside of their majestic plate armour.

Seeing that the merchant single handily wiped out enemy cavalry reinforcements I was quickly alerted back towards the hill as a large gale suddenly appeared behind a brush the enemy was hiding behind as it slammed into the third cart that caught fire, the wind blowing out plumes of fire that caught several of my personnel in it's hot blaze as well as hot smouldering splinters like hot shrapnel that injured a few more.

I then noticed that Julia had immediately left her caravan and was quickly and selflessly making her way towards the injured and wounded, some of them noticing her and were either trying to intercept her or shoot at her.

Understanding their intention, my eyes recoverd it's brightness and ferocity as my instincts demanded that I must protect her "Covering fire!" I Pointed to Julia before laying out covering fire before several followed my lead as I then called out to the Merchant as I felt a wind blade brush past my air, skimming a piece of my bandages off. "Take out those fucking mages!" I swore at the merchant as he swivelled the Gatling Gun with a fresh magazine inserted and pointed towards the trees before cranking the gun before firing off a another barrage of modern firepower that exploded against the tree bark that smashed straight through their cover.

"What in the name of Brimir is this!?" one mage cried out in terror

"Those muskets just keep shooting! They're firing more than once! That musket cannon is killing us the worst!" one mage cried out in increasing despair.

"How the hell did they get a hold them!?"Another sia through gritted teeth as he was clutching onto his bleeding shoulder.

"Never mind how! Who made the bastard things is what I'm thinking!" A mage cried out before getting struck in the face that sheared off his left ear that sent him screaming to the ground.

One mage was getting increasingly more furious at the humiliation they were being dealt b in his eyes, worthless commoners. "I'm not letting no piss stinking, talentless common filth kill me!" he yelled out before he jumped out of cover to launch a fire spell before he got stunned as a bullet grazed against his cheek bone before collapsing on a tree before being riddled with multiple holes from the Gatling gun that was massacring them and painting the tree red with his own blood. The common foot soldiers and mercenaries were at breaking point as they witnessed all of their fellow comrades and friends being slaughtered as if they were just ants under a boot.

More mages were eventually getting picked off from sharpshooters firing at them from a greater distance away from the Convoy. They were mainly firing from within cover, whether it be a small brush, bush, tree or the elevation of a slope. They were using special sights more marksmen/snipers that I was soon to implement into my Combat Personnel. They got into position just before the first shot was fired that started the chaos.

They used their flanking advantage to supress their movements and action when their numbers were whittling down due to accurate sniper fire. One Mage had his head burst like water melon, whilst another had his hand blasted off by a stray round as he collapsed to the floor, face stricken with sheer agony.

The third mage cracked from the fear and the pressure of combat that overwhelmed his courage, resolve and bravery quickly that he lost all of his nerve and immediately resorted into deserting his company and desperately casted a quick spell that will allow him to escape by flying out of the area as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, the Mage was not quick enough to escape as one sniper tagged him on his foot with a bullet. The Mage lost focus and from the sudden burning pain in his left foot where the 45-70 round that tore through his boot, what's worse was that he accidentally dropped his wand. He now felt himself free falling with with nothing to slow him down or stop his descent as he was 50 feet off of the ground before he met multiple tree branches and then solid ground.

I noticed more were making their way towards me with swords held up high, intent on cutting the head of the snake of this group. Gritting my teeth together, I pushed Misaki and Sarah out the way before whipping out one of my revolvers before popping one off in the upper chest before I slapped the hammer back, repeating the same process four times like an old western gunslinger, taking out two of the three that were charging while the last man standing was on his knees with two bullet wounds buried deep into his abdomen and chest.

I walked up to him, eyes burning with such a fiery ferocity. The man on his knees raised his head, whimpering and pleading with me, but i didn't want to listen to his pathetic cries and pleas, for he is guilty of multiple horrific crimes in his mercenary career, why should I spare him?

"Shut up" I said before I pulled the trigger and shattered a piece of his scalp off and he flopped to the ground lifelessly.

My last words were said to him before the last shot was heard in the area. The road was paved with blood and corpses, empty spent cartridges lay empty on the ground. While the air permeated with the smell of spent propellant that was heavy.

I stared at the aftermath with cold apathy, but inside I was conflicted… Now I really killed someone for real. In cold blood? Unlikely, they were threatening us so I can still claim it was self-defence, but who the hell would listen to my side of the story when I was mostly responsible for all this?

"Are we clear!?" I called out to my perseonnel and the Rangers that were nearby.

"Clear! None escaped, but we have several alive that have surrendered, but wounded. some of them being mages" A ranger answered back from his tree, that last bit intriguing me a bit.

I then turned to the Merchant "You good?"

He responded with a nod to the head whislt leaning on the Gatling gun. "Not the best start, but I'll live."

"Any casualties?" I called over to Julia

"6 casualties, 4 minor, 2 moderately severe." She responded whilst looking over some of the casualties that were suffering from burns while some were unconscious from the blast. "We've only suffered one death though, one of our drivers in the second cart." Julia said with a solemn, but professional look.

I could only wince at the painful reminder of my responsibilities and the weight on my shoulders truly weighed at the realisation of my true purpose with this power of mine. One of my personnel had finally been killed in conflict. Could I summon him back? I could in 90 days. However, This unit was but a simple wagon driver, a common C class unit… and i didn't really personally know him, a truth that made me feel worse when I saw his body. Am i really supposed to know and remember the face and name of every fallen comrade? I knew that i should, but i also knew that the task was difficult.

It was the first time I saw a body, not the bodies lying around me, but a body that was a loyal subordinate that trusted me completely. It was a bitter pill for me to swallow, for my emotions were nulled by my passive ability that forbade me from falling into a pitiful state of despair. Instead, it re-directed my emotions to be fuelled from my source of anger and rage.

The fat fuck that started this, the one that was flat on his back with a dead horse crushing his leg as he was so desperately trying to reach out for his wand that was inches away from his plump fingers. Trying but failing miserably to retrieve his wand.

I growled hoarsely as I marched my way up to the Fat count, just as he was about to hook a finger around his wand and draw it on the leader of the upstart peasants, my boot slammed onto his finger, breaking at least three of them.

The Noble wailed before he was sucking in air desperately as his eyes were as if they were popping out. His whole body was shaking like tremors, wouldn't blame him for all of the pain he's been feeling. He turned towards the leader of the rabble with eyes field unhinged fury as his eyes held a level of madness and rage in them.

"You…You've really done it now you fucking insolent peasant! You dare…You dare to raise your hands against your betters!" he spluttered out with globs of spit shooting through his clenched teeth with his eyes bloodshot from both the pain and the outrage he was feeling towards me.

My response was to turn and dig my heel into his hand till I heard a few more cracks. It didn't take long for him to have a change of mind when he started blubbering like a kid with a scraped knee.

"I dare, because you dared to rob me of everything I own and worked hard for. And who are you to say you are better than me?" i spoke in low dry smouldering tone.

"I am..a Noble…We demand Respect! It is our birth right to rule over the common rabble as your defenders and protectors you ungrateful bastards! We liberated you from the tyranny and the incompetence of the royal family, you should be thanking me and all of Reconquista for what we did!" he declared by screaming out to the heavens that actually left me quite surprised by the passion in his voice, to strongly believe that he is right.

Admirable, but mistaken...However…

My shoulders started to shake and my lungs starting to swell "Hn…He…hehe..ahaha…AHAHAHAHA!" I couldn't take it any longer as I burst out laughing. My personnel didn't laugh, but I could tell that they were amused by what they heard. I laughed for a full minute much to the count's dismay before my face devolved into look of scornful hatred.

"So you say. For you to call the royalists tyrants, yet your actions here prove the hypocrisy in your words proving yourselves to the agents of tyranny, and yet you call yourselves the Self-appointed defenders of the people and justice? Don't make me laugh! For what right do you tell us how to live? What authority do you have over our very lives when you are not pointing your wands and your swords at the skulls of the innocents?" I snarled at this hateful scum as I briefly looked over towards the unconscious girl.

"You have no say here, count. You killed and you pillaged in the name of your laws and your so called god, and then you dare lecture us on morality!" I expressed sternly whilst pressing my foot down further, watching him squirm underneath me, for some reason…I keep picturing that fucker's face on this same man… how much I wished to pay him back for what he did... but there's always a starting point.

I picked up his wand and examined the pointy tip of the wand before I looked back down at him before I grabbed his chubby cheeks, whimpering in fear as my grip held his head in place firmly.

"Wh-who are you?" he whimpered out pathetically, his eyes shaking from the fear as he stared into my cold metallic gaze.

Hm…That's a good question he asked, who exactly am I to him? Does he mean me individually, or does he mean who we are as a faction? Haven't really thought about it, never crossed my mind till now… Not like it matters, he'll be dead and nobody will know but him, but I might as well humour him.

"My Name is unimportant, but if you must know who we are… call us..Terrans." I said with low murmur that made him want to relive himself in fear right there and now. It…May or may not be the best name, a Latin name for Earth, but it holds personal attachment to my former home world, but I can focus on it later. I'm not going to call it Neo Britain or the New United Kingdom, because A, I'd rather not go through that as I see no point in it, and B, Calling it a Kingdom would just raise too many eyebrows as if I am technically calling myself royalty and what would it be the United Kingdom of what exactly? Not to say that I didn't love my country or anything, but there is only one UK that I am familiar with and know best. Calling my home, state or nation as Terra is simple, easy to remember and holds a personal feeling in my heart to my true home world. But from the look of his face I think he misinterpreted it into something that he was now dreading.

"Wh-What are you going to do?" The count whimpered in fear as my eyes glinted maliciously before I forcefully turned his face to the right.

"I'm going to find a home for this." I indicated to the wand before I gripped the side of his face hard and pressed his head further into the ground..

"NOOOO!" he screamed in terror and tried to thrash around before I rammed the tip of his wand into the Noble's ear, before hammer the grip of the wand with just my fist further in. I hammered the wand down enough to send him into a braindead but twitching mess.

After I stopped punching the wand into his ear, I stood up and then proceeded to stamp on his face further to drive the point further into his head. I lost count after how many times I did it, but I think I was past the point where his skull had broken apart in several places. I was then brought out of my rage induced rampage on his head by Misaki who grasped onto my shoulder. I immediately stopped once I felt her concerned and loving hand on my shoulder, calming down the moment she touched me. Realising what I just did, I Stumbled back and slowly observing over the mess that I made on his face and on my right boot.

 **Level Up! x4**

 **+61,450GMP**

 **REP Gained/ Infamy gained!**

 **Reconquista: -210/1000 REP (Unfriendly and Suspicious) (You have committed a grave crime in the eyes of Reconquista. If the Crime is discovered and they relate the crime to you, your Rep will decrease and your fame/infamy will rise depending on the crime and action.)**

 **Albion Royal Family: 0/1000 (Neutral.)**

 **Goblin Tribes: -810/1000 (Vilified)**

I read through all of that I have gained from this battle, if I could call it that. I noticed that I have a another new feature that I didn't know I had, did they add it recently, I didn't notice. I decided to see what this new feature is.

Reputation/Fame and Karma

 **Reputation and fame are two sides of the same coin that affects your standing with the people and people in power of your village or outside or even in foreign nations, but it can also act as a double edged sword to yourself and the person opposite you. Depending on your rep and karma it can affect you in multiple ways, like relationships with people. If you have a positive rep then you will gain some benefits from some people or your friends, like extra beneficial quests, generous rewards, discounts, popularity (Especially with the ladies, Wink;)) and bonus EXP and money rewards. If you appear to be the opposite then you will have it pretty rough as it already is as you will not gain or lose those benefits and also with a slight chance be a target of general dislike, hatred or vengeance. Reputation does not affect everyone as it will only affect a certain type or a group of people or person from a either a village/town/city or from an organisation.**

 **The rep metre ranges from -1000 to +1000 with 0 as the neutral zone.**

 **-1000 to -800: Vilified (** You are Public Enemy No.1)

 **-800 to -600: Despised (** You are a target for anger and hate of the person or organisation affected who genuinely despise your existence, so watch your back **)**

 **-600 to -400: Hated (** you are generally considered as a bastard and will leave many people who hate you upset by your presence **)**

 **-400 to -200: Unfriendly (** you are generally picked onby a group of people who think to be superior to you to the point of harassing.

 **-200 to 0: dislike** (You are an outcast by groups of people who either think to be superior to you, picked on by a group who think you are easy prey or feel as if you have wronged them or your presence upsets them for some reason).

 **0: neutral** (Just another brick in the wall. You are considered to be a nobody but a face in the crowd. You're just an average person to them, nothing more, nothing less)

 **0 to 200: liked** (You're considered to be a pretty cool guy, so expect to make a few friends or friendly acquaintances)

 **200 to 400: Friendly** (you are very well liked and popular with certain groups.)

 **400 to 600: loved** (You are a great person to many and you are always there for them, this can range for devotion, best friendship or even love itself.)

 **600 to 800: Adore** (This take love and respect to a deeper level.)

 **800 to 1000: Idolize** (You are the people's Messiah and you are also love incarnate with the opposite gender)

As Interesting as well as it being weird aside, I decided to come to terms that I did what I had to do for the safety of all of my people. They were the ones who started all this, but I will admit that I was the first to retaliate to their threat.

This was exactly what I feared, being dragged into a conflict that does not concern me. However, it was inevitable for me to be dragged into this pointless civil war. I know and understand the nature of this conflict and I know what the bigger picture is.

On the surface, Reconquista had enough of the Royal families' of Albion, and by association, every Royal family in Halkeginia for their incompetence and thus they wish to have nobles be the better replacement for them to be the ruling power rather than royalty over their nations and its people. Part of their justification for overthrowing the royalty and the Church (possibly due to how the Head of Church, I.E. the Pope who is also the ruler of Romalia and has strong ties to every royal family in the Brimiric Kingdoms and the fact that they are like puppet nations for Romalia) Is that they're letting those Elven heathens control the Holy Land, so they're following their lord and holy god and founder Brimir's will in launching a crusade to take it back via a unified military force, and to do it they will need a united Halkeginia (Including Germania, whom are not as strong believers as the 4 Brimiric Kingdoms) for this goal. Logic and common sense shows that the Monarchs know that fighting the elves is a fruitless attempt and will only have dire consequences that will weaken the humans even more than the last crusade thousands of years ago.

Well, that's the **"official"** reason anyway. But in truth, it's really just the Albionese nobles being manipulated into Taking advantage of the movement in order to jockey for more power in their favour and also forwarding themselves into a better political position under Reconquista's leader, Oliver Cromwell. This man who is actually a puppet leader in the hands of Sheffield, where in truth that little people really know is that Cromwell's ability to lead is actually pretty useless without the aid of Sheffield's help. Sheffield who in truth is also a puppet to another leader who in turn is acting under Gallia's King Joseph orders to create turmoil and anarchy in Albion. What Joseph's reason for helping Reconquista is to obtain the Founder's Music Box for himself, a Void item belonging to Albion (like how the Prayer Book is Tristain's treasure) and he's willing to start a war to obtain it.

Now that I really thought about it, was I really going ot step out of this?

My answer was certain once I looked over ot the unconscious girl who my Doctor was looking over.

I turned to Misaki and the rest of the Personnel and gave out my orders. I was already aware of how loud we were and Hearth was not too far away. Somebody must've heard the commotion and reported it by now. "Alright, pull back in to the forest! We're setting up camp! Rangers, cover our tracks! Engineers, I want an FOB set up (Forward Operating Base) within the hour! By morning will set out with a quarter of our number here!"

At that moment, I was beginning to realise how much I have changed. I was getting pretty good with being the commander, dare I say I liked it even. My old self couldn't lead for shit and was always a nervous and distrustful wreck around people, but my new identity and bandaged face, the Burned Man that I now am… makes me feel…like I can do anything.

"What about the bodies?"

"Leave them be" I spoke coldly before I set off with the convoy as we retreated back into the forest to find an open, but hidden vicinity to construct our FOB.

If war is something that they want, then it is an inevitable outcome that I must give. Maybe not now, but soon… there will be war.

(End Chapter)

* * *

 **Next Chapter**

 **Tensions are rising between Zac's group and Reconquista in Hearth. The situation was not what he had expected it to be, but the deal still remains on the table. "Take it or leave it, Stranger"**


	6. Chapter 6: Terra Nova Industries

**Yeah, took me long enough didn't it?**

 **Why am I increasingly raising the word count each chapter? I could edit it... but I've done so much for this chapter that I can't be bothered to. I apologise for it's length, but it's how i roll.**

 **There's little action in this chapter (That comes later...As in next chapter), so i do apologise. Everything is subtle-ish in this chapter. As the title suggests, it' about doing business, monopolies and getting rich quick!**

 **(Merchant: "Hehehehe! That's right!")**

 **Although I do feel that this chapter was not up to the standards in terms of world building since the last few chapters, but i'll have to make do with it as i go on.**

 **But hey, I'll leave that to you to decide. Becaseu with Reviews and PMs for any ideas, it leaves me room to adapt them to my fic.**

 **Also, i had my first critical review for this fic that wasn't a flame... Yay! Did he like it? Not really. Did i care? Not really... Well, just a little. He just let me know that he has high standards when it comes to fanfics. Well, sorry~! But I never claimed to be a successful author, Hmm~!**

 **At least he acknowledges that my idea has potential, which is what I was mostly aiming for. I could've posted the RTS gamer's challenge in fanfiction for anybody to try out, which i wholly encourage as i'm getting tired of the same Gamer fanfic with noting new to add to it.**

 **Also, Kudos to "Vorfy" who suggested to me on PM**

 **"On Questionable Questing there is a story called: A Song of a Real-Time Tactical Gamer and Fire. Lots of Fire"**

 **This website is** **like a NSFW version of spacebattles forums**

 **Now, you won't find this if you type it in on google, it's only exclusive on the website** IF **you set up an account just to view it. I know, it took me a while to figure that one out as Vorfy hadn't informed me about that, so it took me a few hours of searching through the whole website until i found out that there was a restricted section only reserved for those who have an account on the website.**

 **Anyway, on with the chapter!**

* * *

 **Terra Nova Industries**

 **"Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings!**  
 **Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams!**  
 **Blinded by me, you can't see a thing!**  
 **Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream!**  
 **Master!**  
 **(Master!)"**

 **(Metallica: Master of Puppet)**

/

Well… that was fucked.

The ambush caught me way off guard for starters. For them to lay out a trap like a baited hook of what looks seemingly like a poor helpless young woman in distress who in reality is someone whose mind has been…broken, manipulated and brainwashed. A somewhat effective strategy, but cruel nonetheless as well as deadly and an underhanded method in ensnaring passing Samaritans and the foolish naive men that fantasises about and adheres strongly to the code of ideology that is chivalry and honour. What they tried to pull on me was a dirty, dishonourable and cowardly trick that was really meant for another faction in mind that was not us or any other unfortunate sod who also fell for the same trick, but unlike them… they weren't lucky enough to survive or even had a chance to fight back with overwhelming firepower. It seems Chivalry truly is dead.

Of course, not everyone would agree that it was my own fault as there were forces we were not aware of at play there and then. Thus it was the job of the Scouts and the Rangers in surveying the area closely for any possible threats to us, but oddly enough… they never noticed them for some reason.

The Scouts and the Rangers were most distraught by the ambush incident. As much as I tried to calm them by telling them I don't blame them for it, but they wouldn't have any of it and sadly they laid the blame solely on themselves and sought to rectify their mistakes by motivating and pushing themselves harder in their training, which I wasn't going to stop them as I admire their enthusiasm and drive to push on.

Misaki was the one who was the most upset by the incident as I can already tell that usually is the case if things don't go our way and will always appear hostile to anything or anyone that is a threat, as well as our group's vulnerability back then that the blunder had revealed to us and that had almost costed us our lives and hard work, and that was something that she wanted addressing as soon as possible, as do I. If they had done it without the whole dramatic confrontation that the nobles started and instead just straight up attacked us like a true roadside ambush, then there would've been a slimmer chance that I would've made it out alive once the first few magic spells had been thrown. However, none of that happened and instead they are dead and we are not, that's that.

So… here I was sitting in our new FOB base, one quickly constructed out of convenience and necessity in a natural cave with several tunnels leading to several places we don't know about. With a bit of investigation, we discovered that this cave used to be a hideout to some bandit gang or it may as well have been a den for professional thieves once upon a time of who knows when that was. The previous occupants seem to have left in a rush and have deserted some of their loot behind. They must've been desperate to flee if they even considered leaving some of these behind as the loot itself looked as if it could fetch an incredibly high price to some lucky sod. Although, they never returned for it… could mean that they perished.

Hundreds and even thousands of gold coins, jewellery and even gems that once belonged to the nobility that were all stored here. They were mainly just common treasures you would normally find in an inconspicuous generic cave system you would commonly find in an RPG game. They had some treasures here and there that will give me a couple of hundred thousand and even close to a million GMP. What really set me off was that they had some crates here that were were some of these crystal stones I was looking for.

 **Crate of 25x Wind stones**

 **Crate of 12x Fire stones**

That was a lot of magically condensed minerals of an infused nature element that for some reason we found conveniently resting in this cave, completely abandoned. What these bandits or thieves were trying to accomplish with these stones, I'll never know and will never care to find out, because now it's mine and I've already given the order to the R&D division once I sent them back via my pocket dimension inventory ability that was also by proxy connected to my pocket dimension storage warehouses and basement, so that the scientists can acquire them from there back at the base. I could hardly wait for the results, magic items here I come!

We found the cave deep in the forest and we soon set up multiple tents outside of the cave with makeshift camo netting made out of rope, string, durable sticks, sturdy metal poles and the natural plant life, leaves and foliage covering the campsite so we were relatively well hidden from view so we wouldn't be spotted by aerial threats or distant threats.

We had to set up an FOB immediately as we were deep enough inside the forest where the terrain becomes our natural camouflage and defence as well as our best hiding spot away from prying eyes and anyone that is searching for us with hostile intent like I expected for more trouble to show up after someone reports the unmistakable firefight occurring but a couple of hours ago to the authority officials In Hearth.

The Forward Operating Base (FOB) acts more as an auxiliary base of operation closer to the frontlines than the Central Command Headquarters. It holds similar regard to the primary headquarters base, but holds less in comparison when it is mainly used to support strategic goals and tactical objectives. Regarding manpower and resources, Forward Operating Bases may or may not have hospitals, an airfield, machine shop, artillery and other logistical and support structures included due to its smaller size.

We only managed to construct a few crucial structures that we could make into sheds to house the horses and the wagons, carts and caravans for maintenance and check-ups. We also built an armoury and a workshop to stock up and re-arm ourselves. A medic station for Julia and also comes with the ability of summoning combat medics, to which i summoned a squad's worth of them with Julia in charge of them. We also constructed a rather…primitive relay station. Well… not really that, more like it was based on a structure used in relaying messages to and from the base, but our method of communications were messenger birds instead, seeing as it was the best we could do until our engineers could construct the telegraph poles so we can use Morse code and then eventually Telephones.

I was sitting in the medic station with Julia having my head tended to and my bandages replaced as the ones I wore previously were nearly torched off my head. I could hear in the tent's rather small sickbay that Misaki was chewing out the Ranger's and the scouts for their blunder.

" **What the hell were you guys doing!? What happened back there!? Why didn't inform us of the enemy's positions!?"** Misaki chastised them with a displeased oppressive tone that made them sweat drop nervously.

One of the Rangers, a male, spoke up. His expression was one of shame and apprehension "We…We couldn't, because we never found them...We checked the road several times before you arrived and we never spotted not one oddity or any sign of the enemy nearby! It wasn't until the Boss approached the girl did they seemingly appear from nowhere!" the ranger gritted his teeth, lamenting in his own failure. "Because of that… our failure almost costed our Boss's life!... Boss, please punish us for our failure!" the Scouts and the Rangers slammed their heads down into the ground.

Misaki, while her face was shadowed turned towards me and spoke in a sweet but silently furious smile that looked as if it was barely restrained and was about to deliver the punishment herself "Master?" Her tone was quite alarming, like she was about to kill something or someone… so I had to intervene to clear up the misunderstanding and calm her down.

"Alright, enough of that! You've had your say Misaki and I understand that you've a right to be upset and worried about all this, but it wasn't truly their fault so don't be too harsh on them!" I chastised her.

And just like that, Misaki's oppressive aura disappeared and she had a tilt to her head as if pondering on why her Master was so forgiving and calm about the situation. But she understood where he was coming from, it wasn't truly their fault. "I understand Boss, but… who do you think is responsible for this mess?"

Then, the Merchant decided to walk in and explain his point of view on the matter "The reason why they didn't spot them in time is as they said, because they couldn't. I suspect that these mages had something up their sleeves that prevented them from being seen. The scouts were good enough at not being detected and were also good at spotting targets and points of interest from a great distance in great detail" he informed us. "But this was something that they couldn't detect."

"So why didn't-…couldn't they spot a small army that was nearby?" Julia spoke her piece, finally finished with her job with applying the fresh bandages on my head.

"Well, it's rather simple really…Magic." The Merchant said so simply with a wave of his hands for dramatic effect as if telling the answer to a simple pop quiz.

We all stared at him incredulously as if he just told us a bad joke. "Ok?…How? Enlighten us all." I gestured to the Merchant as to why he thinks that way.

The Merchant nodded and turned to the scouts. "You say you've checked the road…Several times, did you say?" he inquired.

The scouts and the Rangers both nodded. "Yes, several times… we've seen nothing but foliage and trees. There were just no signs of disturbed nature or the fact that there was a small army of men hiding behind them. It's as if they were…invisible." They explained, obviously confused by the revelation.

I narrowed my eyes for a short while but then it lit up as if I just had a brainwave. "Hey? Is it possible that… they used magic to turn themselves invisible?" I asked, speculatively

Misaki then caught on too. "That's… a very plausible idea. After all, we are in a magically dominant world and society, so there is that possibility on the table." She nodded and agreed with the logic.

The Merchant nodded in agreement that we were on to something. "It's as I…or we suspected and you are sort of correct... You see, I took the chance to question those mages ahead of you and the others who wanted a crack at them." The Merchant said before Misaki's eyes narrowed in disapproval.

"You did? I don't recall ever giving you permission, nor did you gain any form or permission from our Master." She spoke, feeling slightly irritated and lamenting at the lost opportunity at losing the chance of doing it herself and being the one to inform Her Master herself.

"I'm well aware of that and I swear I will make it up to you and the Boss later, but bear with me on this. Trust me, this gets quite interesting." He apologised before he murmured out a chuckle. "The spell as it turns out was a high class spell that only a triangle or a higher class of mage can summon. It wasn't really invisibility as that is much more advanced and difficult to cast, but sort of like a mirage casted to trick us. Like when you're walking through a desert and you swear that you can see an oasis in the distance, but it's only the trick of the light. What you just saw was an effect caused by the way that the light falls on things, and does not really exist in the way that it appears.

They used the moon light to create a sort of mirror effect around the surrounding trees to reflect the light around them, creating a field of mirages that mimics the surrounding forest.

The mages themselves told me something interesting too, they confirmed your suspicions with a bit of…persuasion on my part. Yet, it turns out that it wasn't any of them that casted it. It was a water mage with a second affinity to wind magic that casted it and there were no water mages amongst them and one of them is dead while the other is wounded." He explained, much to our puzzlement.

"Did you manage to narrow down your suspicions, or did they tell you who it was?" I asked of him

"She's in the room with us." The Merchant informed as he nodded his head towards the corner of the room with an occupied bed and we all turned our gaze on the unconscious form of the same girl that had been used as live bait with a female Medic tending to her wounds. Her hood was down and it showed the dishevelled state of her silvery blonde hair.

"We did find a wand on her," Misaki admitted "Yet she didn't use it on us, or threaten us with it" she said while cupping her chin in thought. "When I first saw her, her mind was addled…her mental state lost."

"So, she's a mage… a possible noble girl at that, judging by her unnatural hair colour and has that Nobility look about her despite her current state." I sighed sadly at this girl's unfortunate fate.

"Her wounds are the least of our worries when she wakes up. It's her mental state we have to be wary of." Julia warned us "Whatever they did to her, her response to us when she wakes up may become…unpredictable so to say. Could be bad…Could be worse." Julia expressed her concern and caution.

I agreed with the concern Julia was speaking about. "Then she really can't stay here, she'll have to be taken back to base. Julia, you're in charge of her recovery."

Julia raised an elegant brow. "May I ask as to why I'm to focus on her recovery?"

"You're our expert and chief medical doctor we have, if anyone can heal her it's you." I spoke honestly and complimentary that also made Julia's cheeks turn a bit dusty as she nudged her glasses up bashfully. "Also, she's a mage. And if I'm not wrong, she's a bloody good one at that. It may be worthwhile to have her in our ranks, provided that we can rid her of her mental condition and that she doesn't become… difficult."

"All well and good boss, but I think we should keep her here just in case." The Merchant chimed in his concerns.

"Why's that?"

"Well it's like you've said, her reaction will vary at the sight of us. We can't say for certain how she will react in a different environment with strangers all around. For all we know, she could react violently and possibly destructive as well if there are any wands nearby. Secondly, I think it's best if we keep her away from the civvies back at home base. I'm not entirely certain that they would be… comfortable with her around." The Merchant explained.

I pondered at the thought of that and realised he made a valid point about that as I didn't really stop and thought about what the reaction of all of the villagers would be. From the looks of all of them, a majority of them may have had bad or even horrible experiences with Nobles/ Mages. I eventually reconsidered my idea as I didn't think it's a good idea for her to go back to base just yet, until we are certain that her mental state isn't a threat to herself or to others and that the villagers are at least comfortable with the fact of having her around.

I then nodded in agreement after I gave it some thought "Alright she stays here, but Julia will be the one in charge of her recovery. We may need her close by just in case"

All three of them nodded and I turned to Misaki "Any signs of activity in the forest?"

"There has been a little so far, but nothing to be concerned about yet. All tracks leading to us have been successfully covered and they've found nothing and suspect nothing so far. If they do, the Rangers will alter their leads in different direction. Should we engage them?"

I contemplated for a moment before shaking my head "No, tell them to hold their ground until their close enough and avoid conflict unless it's unavoidable as it'll only bring unnecessary heat on our heads and reveal our positons to them. It'll be best to lay low and wait it out for now, till morning until the search has died down at least. For now, keep watch on them and divert them away when necessary if any one of them comes close to our FOB" I said before turning towards the Merchant. "Despite the losses of two of our wagons and its cargo, we'll make do with what we have. I also think we should search for other investments in the town while we are at it, so you'll be going on ahead and search the town for any points of interest before our arrival."

The Merchant grinned behind his bandana covered face as his eyes glinted. "Not a problem, boss. Leave it to me."

I then turned to Misaki "Send a message to HQ, tell them to prepare us reinforcements to FOB1 and also tell the R&D division to get their arses in gear and get a move on in researching on innovating our artillery and support equipment and weaponry."

Misaki nodded and then asked "And development and transportation?"

"No need, I'll deal with it myself." I said before dismissing them as soon as the bandages were wrapped securely around my head and made my way towards my makeshift sleeping quarters in the cave.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting, but busy day. I can rely on the Merchant on getting into the town and finding what we need, all I need to do is get some sleep and recuperate for the few days ahead before we reach Hearth.

* * *

The next morning came by, and as expected… nothing happened out of the ordinary. Our FOB was not discovered despite their obvious efforts in tracking us down. However, the search party seemed to be a bit…reluctant in venturing further ahead into the forest, not that I blame them. After knowing the dangers in there and also what happened to the ambush party, even I would be hesitant or outright refuse to ever step a foot inside if I was in their position, just knowing I would meet a similar fate.

The Scouts and the Rangers informed me that they've been at it all night to the point that they exhausted themselves come dawn, even past the few hours of the new dawn were they still at it. I wasn't sure if it was admirable, stubborn, determined, stupid, or they were forced to go through with rest of the night without rest on the orders by their masters. From the looks of it, it may as well have been the latter option.

It made me wonder how they still haven't managed to find us by now, granted the forest is massive, and even their mages in the party made little impact in the search. From what I've also learned, they too didn't bring any dogs… yeah.

With them currently occupied, we easily managed to slip out of the forest come dawn. Although, we still had to take a different route to Hearth as the northern route into town was a bit too obvious, so we had to take a diversion and enter the town from the west.

Fortunately for us, the terrain was actually pretty similar to the highlands in the Scottish countryside. All we had to do was travel safely around or through the hills and the valleys that is not in Hearth's or anyone else's line of sight.

While it did take longer for us to get there, the journey was by no means boring like it was during my journey through the forest, but eventually it did leave a sour thought in my mind.

We soon found a tree by a crossroads. It was old and the leaves were already shed from it, but that wasn't the sight that spooked me the most. On several of the branches were several ropes knotted tightly in a secure noose around the necks of at least 16 dead people.

Some were recent with crows picking at their flesh, while others were already beginning to decompose with maggots infesting inside their rotting flesh and few were already withered decrepit old skeletal corpses by now.

I got off of the wagon and made my way towards the tree. As soon as we neared the tree, we spotted a sign post in front of the tree. It decreed, **"Crimes against Reonquista and our Lord Founder Brimir will be met with severe punishment."** "Must've been a terrible crime" I muttered out loudly and dryly, observing the fates of these men, women and… children?

"Was it?" I heard a voice from behind me that surprised me a bit. Behind me was a woman presumably in her late 30s or early 40s dressed in black garbs with a white cloth holding her brown chestnut hair back, her eyes were black with rings and creased with bags under them, her wrinkles on her face more deep and apparent and her hair losing colour more than usual in her advancing age.

Apart from that, she didn't really look that old at all. In fact, I'd say she still holds that mature level of beauty in her if it wasn't for the obvious signs of stress and aging then she could just get away with the signs pointing towards the obvious. However, her distress she was feeling deep down was more than apparent when she approached the tree.

"Was it a crime for a husband to protect his family from hired thugs? Was it a crime to steal food to feed your starving child, or was it a crime for a child who didn't know better than to accidently bump into a noble and not apologise afterwards because he forgot his manners in his rush?" Her tone was devoid of any emotion, but the despair and anguish was definitely present.

"I'm sorry… I didn't know the reason for their punishments" I tried apologising, but she was still upset, possibly venting her frustrations.

"Punishments? Is that what you think this is!?…Che! Listen laddie, this was no mere punishment… a punishment is getting a good smack on the arse or a few floggings against your back for a simple mistake, that's punishment! This however, this was an execution over minor mistakes and slights! A message for all of us lesser born!" she gritted her teeth in anger.

"Step out of line or suffer." I muttered out loudly enough, my eyes narrowed at the whole tree and the sign, now it was all obvious to me as this message was clear and its purpose was certain.

"At least you're not a total fool, there's hope for you yet." She spoke dryly.

Misaki bristled at her tone but didn't say anything. Granted I was a bit putt off by her tone a bit, but I couldn't blame her for her bitterness.

"We did nothing wrong… We wanted nothing to do with this pointless war. Yet they punished us all the same because our last lord was allied with the Royalists. This tree here was supposed to be used for some of the petty criminals such as arsonists, thieves and suspected spies and such. Now, it's used as a spot to hang all the innocents wrongly convicted as well as all of the petty and small time criminals and even the minor crimes committed such as stealing a few loaves and of bread or looking at a noble funny that'll earn you at least a few days in the dungeons or a few good flogs, but instead they lost all reasoning and began hanging innocents on a whim for all sorts of senseless reasons, just pinning blames and throwing about their authority all willy-nilly." She explained with a hint of scorn in her voice.

The expressed rant had made me frown at that kind of reasoning "For what reason would they execute innocents just like that?" I asked

"Because our new masters are a bunch of lying, selfish, sadistic cunts whose never satisfied with what they've already got, that's what! They get their rocks off on this sort of thing for all I know and fucking care! Even as much as a whisper of a rumour that this or that person is suspected to hold heretical beliefs or even the smallest suspicion of being a spy, they will most likely or definitely face a penalty of death. Committing a small crime or Insulting them, and their beliefs will also get you the tree, stoning or possibly worse." She spoke as she stared at the tree, or at one body in particular, a young boy.

"That boy there… is he?" I indicated towards the boy that was half decayed.

"Aye, he's…was part of my family, but he's not my son, he's my nephew…My son faced a far worse fate than my nephew here for stealing a hen. We're not even allowed to give him a proper burial they say, or else we suffer the same fate as them. Traitors and criminals deserve no less, they say. And my son, I told my boy that I wanted him to take no part in this stupid war or be under the service of the count who once ruled Hearth, but the stubborn and foolish boy never listens to his mother, says I'm too paranoid he says. He was a good boy, always looking out for us, he claimed that the job of a guardsman pays well, and it did… for a time.

By the time Reconquista rose to power, a lot of folk were all for them. Sounded reasonable to them, as our king was not the most popular or the best king around, yes, and he has made several costly mistakes, sure… but that doesn't mean he tries his best for all of us, but I think folk have forgotten what he has done and tried for his country, yet we were foolish to listen to the nobles of all people and their fancy words that soon brought them to their side over empty promises and wishful thinking.

Mostly, the folk were just doing it for an easy way out, where they flock towards whoever pays well and gives them food like little lost sheep, is enough reason for us all to betray our king. Who cares about the promised lands and all this destiny crap they keep yammering on about, we're just looking out for ourselves here… at least… that was the main reason behind their motives until everything fell apart and it was too late for them all to realise their regrets and mistakes as the damage was already done. Villages were soon razed, farms were raided and burned to ashes, Towns and cities fell into chaos as the rebellion just swallowed the whole country in its ferocious maws, Hearth especially so since the nobles living in this town rose up together and got rid of the last Count who once ruled the town.

After they secured the town, they rounded up everyone believed and suspected to still hold loyalty towards the noble of this town and towards the royals by the orders of our new count, and were to be executed as what justice demands… their justice, their demands." She told her story as she sniffed derisively. "But my boy didn't care for any of that stuff and nonsense… he was only in it to support his family, and look where it ended up for him! Burned to the stake like a common heretic! My son was not a heretic! He followed the church's teachings all his life, and this how they repay him!?" her rants only led her to spill more tears as she poured out all of her venting frustration out on me.

I could only close my eyes and frown on in silence and feel sorry for the grieving mother as there was nothing I could do for her now, but maybe soon… maybe…

The grieving mother swallowed back her sorrow and dried her tears. "I know you want to say you're sorry for my loss, I know…but don't be… It's just the way things are now. Forgive this mourning mother for running her mouth. And please… don't mention my words to anyone in town, if that's where you're heading to. I don't wish to meet my husband and son just yet, I've still got my daughters who are alive still and they need me now more than ever, but even I worry about them too. I don't wish for a harsh fate upon them, for as I know… the men have the more fairer fates."

That last sentence made me flinch at that harsh reality, she wasn't wrong about the women getting the worse fates in ancient and medieval times. "I understand." I nodded "If it's any consolation, would you accept a parting gift from me and my village? I know you're not asking for it, but you have our sympathies." I said in a soft comforting tone as I reached into my coat pocket and retrieved an item from my pocket dimension inventory from within my coat. I pulled out a money bag ad well as cheese and bread and a bottle of Scotch whisky.

 **Charm successful +15EXP**

'Go away…' I told the system notification.

The woman raised a curious brow at my generosity. "You speak rather smooth for a burned man…Even though I never said I needed your sympathies…but… who am I to refuse such a generous gift from such a charmer like yourself." She shrugged and accepted the gift. She was a bit puzzled by the bottle of scotch whiskey, as I thought she might appreciate it. Although, calling me the Burned man was a bit ironic and a bit... insulting.

"What's this? Is this wine?" she asked curiously.

"Scotch Whiskey" I said, offering her a drink.

"Whiskey? Never heard of that drink, is it new?"

"Recently, yes. We made it back in our village." I nodded, although I wasn't sure which type of drink even existed in this world.

The woman pulled the lid off of the bottle fastened by the cap and took a swig of it. Her eyes literally lit up and she immediately coughed as she felt the alcohol hit her like a charging warhorse. "Screaming shits! How bloody strong did you make this!?" she cried out in surprise.

"…Like it?" I blinked at her reaction.

"…You know what?" she took another swig, but a lighter one this time "Pwah!... I do actually." She gave a light grin and hearty chuckle at this as her cheeks started to grow a light dust of red from the effect. "Cheers, young lad. You've done a good deed in cheering up this old lady. You should show this off to Greg. He owns a Tavern , "The Free Trade" up in Hearth, it's by the west gate, can't miss it." she said after enjoying the taste and effect of the whisky.

"Where exactly did you say you were from?" she asked.

"I didn't… you wouldn't have heard of us, we're kind of new." I fibbed a little, not really wanting to give away of our position, just yet.

"Hm, fair enough I suppose…. It's not like I ever travel much out of Hearth anyway." She simply shrugged. "Fancy popping round our bakery perchance, if you're around? It might not be much, since it's just me and my youngest girl around, but you won't find the best baked bread you'll ever have up in the north" she said in a rather half assed sales pitch, but the pride in her work and business was definite.

'Are you sure about that?' not willing to challenge that pitch, not wanting to toot my own horn as I knew I had a more modern method of baking and making bread that creates far better, fluffier and tastier bread back in the village that can be made by the mother and daughter duo that is Alice and Lena.

"I'm alright right now, but I might pop in later." I politely refused.

The woman wasn't even offended and just shrugged "Eh, worth a shot. Besides, it's not like you can get much form there anyway as we're running low on grain ourselves, and the farms haven't provided for us recently as they've all been recently hit pretty hard due to the civil war." She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "This will affect our town's winter stocks greatly. And the count won't help us as he's hoarded most of the food for himself."

"The town's suffering from Famine?" I asked.

"Oh aye, but not just Hearth. We're short on all sorts of food it isn't funny. A large majority of our food was donated for Reconquista's military, but a large majority of it ended up in that fat cunt Count Livingston's estate's pantry and his and his son's overburdened and bloated guts instead. Worst of it all, and the irony of it all, it was Reconquista who burned our fields and slaughtered our cattle first, yet they blamed it on the Royalists… what a bunch of lying wankers!" she snorted.

Her explanation could only make me snort in amusement to which she noticed and laughed.

"See, glad someone agrees with me openly and isn't a massive wuss around here. You're not bad, stranger."

"If you're interested, I may be able to help you with your grain problem." I offered.

"Oh, how so?"

"In our carts and wagons we have a delivery of wheat to sell at Hearth, and considering you're a baker, we even have fresh flour too. We can sell you some if you're interested?" I offered to her.

"Really?... Mind if I see it?" she said, perking up before I nodded my head towards my convoy and ushered her to follow, to which she did and we walked away from the depressing sight of the tree. "It'll take my mind off of things anyway, it's not like I've got anything else better to do then stand here all morning being deressed." she simply shrugged as if her depression hadn't been apparent since a few minutes ago. Is she bipolar or something?

When she saw the convoy and the armed guards, she raised a sceptical eye.

"You're well-armed for a simple merchant company? And them guards with those weapons and armour they're carrying don't look cheap? You're not some Noble are ya?" she narrowed her eyes at me, accusingly.

"Nope, I 'm as normal as you are." I said convincingly.

"Hmm…" she could've called me out at any moment, but she then nodded and left it at that as she noticed something else among the party. "Are those armed women with you?"

"Yeah, problem?" I turned to face her and she just shrugged in response.

"No… can't say I do. In fact, I find it quite refreshing seeing a woman in a man's uniform and armour for once, you don't normally see anything like that in my life." She chuckled merrily.

"You don't normally see women soldiers?" I enquired.

She gave a shrug. "Not really... I'm not sure about the other kingdoms, or Germania, but I've never heard of a woman in a soldier's uniform before, or even as a knight for that matter. At best, I did hear rumours that the Highlanders have women fighting among them, one of them Highlander girls could easily cleave a man in armour into two with their mighty claymores and battle axes" She expressed her thoughts which made me nod. A good reference to this would be Henrietta's bodyguard and advisor, Agnes de Milan, who is also a captain of the Princess of Tristain's all-female platoon made up of normal civilian women, but they won't be around till next year at least. And the Highlanders?...Hmm, might look into them later on.

The woman made her way to an open wagon where a couple of my men unloaded a sack full of wheat and flour freshly harvested and picked as well as grinded into a soft white flour in a separate sack. She couldn't believe her eyes as she lightly ran her finger through the contents of the flour and put it into her mouth. Her reaction was priceless as she was stunned by the texture and the taste of the crucial ingredient.

"What is this?" she stared at me in absolute awe.

"Erm,flour?" I blinked at her odd reaction.

"Can't be… the taste is so… pure. And it's so… smooth, fresh, and powdery? Even the grain looks fresh and hasn't got a speck of straw in them and there is no rot to any of them. My flour and the local farm's grain sometimes suffer problems with preservation, I can always tell by its odd or rancid smell once it goes off and also the way that bugs can sometimes find their way into your flour, yet yours looks like they've been on the road for days or even a couple of weeks at most… and it still retains its freshness?" She enquired very deeply about the grain and the flour, obviously fascinated by it.

"Pretty much." I shrugged in confirmation. Damn it, I so wished the Merchant was here right now.

The Baker gave off a snort of jolly laughter and patted me on the back that made me flinch from the hard pat on the shoulders that aggravated my sensitive burn wounds "I'm sold! Why not head down to my bakery and you could drop a load off, I'll pay you of course."

" _Sure, I'll do that_." I wheezed and winced from the pain as I nodded towards my men as they loaded the sacks of grain and flour back onto the wagon, ignoring the fact that they all took offence from the rough handling of their master. The baker then suddenly blinked as she recognised something.

"Say, those carts look exactly like the one I saw that one hooded fella riding on who I saw in town earlier this morning, was he with you?" She asked.

"He…Is part of our group, but I told him to go on ahead, why?"

The Baker shrugged "No reason, he just seems to be…observing the town, for some odd reason… like a cat that prowls on, searching for prey."

"There's… nothing to worry about him, he's a merchant." I assured her.

She then nodded in understanding "Ah, so that explains why Greg was in such a pissy mood this morning."

"What did he do?" I groaned at the thought of The Merchant getting into trouble before I made into town.

"The Merchant fella suddenly approached him this morning, bought a couple of drinks and food and just talked for a few moments, chatted with the locals too and was just carefully perusing the place. He seemed charming enough to me when I spoke to him as he visited my bakery when me and my daughter were just opening up for the day, but Greg?… Oooh he were in a right mood last I heard. The Merchant fella must've said something to him that left him in such a grouchy mood." She recollected her memories from the early hours of daylight.

I raised a brow at that and nodded "Right, I'll look into that." I gave a wave and clambered back onto the wagon's front seats.

"Take care now! I'm just…going to stay here for a while." She said whilst sipping out of the whisky bottle.

"That's… not meant to be consumed that quickly." I deadpanned and wondered if I made a mistake in giving such a strong drink to somebody who wasn't accustomed to its alcoholic percentage.

"Pshh! You have no idea how much I can hold my drink, laddie. I've drunk some strong drinks in my life, but this one…not only does it have a hell of a kick to it, but it also tastes great… can't put my mind on what it tastes like, but it doesn't taste like muddy piss water like that one drink Greg serves, that's for sure." She laughed merrily.

"You sure you don't want a lift back into town." I offered to her

 **Charm successful + 15EXP**

'How does that even count? Also, I'm not hitting on her!'I deadpanned at the notification.

"Oh?...Are you hitting on a little old poor widow like me? My aren't you bold?" She smirked and giggled to herself. I think the drink was a bit too strong for her as I just rolled my eyes as I could feel Misaki's questioning glance towards me, and I gave her a wave telling her to 'ignore it'

"I can tell you're in a rush, lad. I'm not, so you can go on ahead." She waved off his concerns.

"Are you not afraid of outside threats?" I asked her

"Like what, Goblins?…Well for some reason, Goblin activity has gotten pretty quiet the past few weeks, like they've gotten spooked somehow according to some people. Bandits, well… they're not very likely to ever come this close to a town that's under heavy watch by Reconquista. At least the one thing they do right is that they don't tolerate bandits near their walls." She admitted with a grain of salt.

"And Reconquista themselves?" I pushed a point across that made her blink before shrugging.

"Fair point." She admitted.

"Ah, I never caught your name stranger. My name's Linda…She introduced herself.

"Zachary Crowshaw… of Terra" I responded politely.

"A second name? Are you sure you're not a Noble?" Linda said with a hardened voice and a narrowed gaze.

"No… never was, never will be… I don't even have magic." I spoke honestly…she seemed to accept that.

"Zachary Crowshaw of Terra? I assume this…Terra is the village where you live?" she asked.

"In a sense…" I nodded, speaking half the truth. In fact, in my mind…Terra isn't even a village, the name itself implies that it can be so much more than a mere village.

"Interesting name for a village, can't say I've ever heard of it, but I'll keep my eyes and ears open for you." She nodded and as soon as I was about to set off… "Oh, and one more thing… Once you reach the Gates, expect trouble." She spoke in warning.

"Why's that?" I asked of her.

"There are two guards at the Gate, both of them crooked to the bones as they are the cronies of that lapdog for the Baron of the town's Trading company. They won't recognise you and seeing that you've got several carts loaded to the brim with wealthy goods, they are more than likely to extort or swindle you with a made up excuse after they make you pay the fee for entry, which by itself is overtaxed."

"Right…Noted." I nodded as I can feel a headache forming as soon as I was going to enter the town.

"If you do end up meeting them at the Gate, speak to the one named Jasper. Ask him about George? I don't know why, but your friend told me to tell you this, he says it will help." Linda shrugged with a puzzled look on her face.

I nodded my thanks to her and then set off towards the town. It wasn't far away as it was just over a couple of hills and then a straight road from then on.

* * *

 **(Hearth: The Free Trade Tavern)**

I finally arrived into Heart and to my surprise, i was actually dismayed by the state of the whole town. I could tell that it used to be great town of commerce and trade, but it was obvious that there had once been a fight in this town as the residential areas still had the obvious signs of the scars of the civil war. Houses were in ruins or abandoned, Businesses ran dry, people were out on the streets living in poverty. Men and women begging or trying to make up some desperate coin, even if they had to sell themselves to earn it. And i even spotted children in rags, running through the street with a many fruit they could carry in their arms, running from an angry apple merchant threatening to smash their heads in.

And now, i finally found the tavern i was pointed towards... and it's appearance as a fantasy pub or tavern... left me greatly disappointed in my mind.

"So, how are you finding Hearth at the moment?" The Merchant asked of me as he prodded his cup filled with questionable alcoholic contents.

I was on the other end of the table with Misaki by my side who was equally as aggravated and anxious to leave as we were in some dank, clammy tavern in a dark corner of a murky room just staring into my own cup full of questionable contents, just swishing the muddy looking liquid around in my cup in mild disgust and resisting the urge just to pull out a hip flask of whisky.

I sighed heavily in response, obviously annoyed and irritable by this so called atmosphere in the tavern "In my…Honest opinion… it fucking stinks and the air about this place is totally depressing. When I first arrived at the entrance, I've been forced to pay a ridiculous tarrif as well as almost paying this… war tax that doesn't concern me or some other shit that sounded made up on the spot." I grumbled.

"Did you ask about George?"The Merchant asked

I nodded in response "Yeah…I did, this…Jasper's reaction was something… and he just… let us go."

* * *

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Where do you think you're going, cloth man?" two guards who were wearing Iron plate mail over a red coat, at their sides were standard broadswords and on their heads were Iron pan sized helmets.

My response was a dry and apathetic glare back at them when me and my convoy were just stopped just before we could enter through the Gate. As expected, two guardsmen approached me when I jumped off the Wagon to confront them, and they were looking for trouble. And Cloth Man, really?

"What's it to you?" I answered back, rather impatiently.

"Watch your fucking mouth, mate. You're intruding in a military operation zone without a pass, and our job is to watch the gate for any suspicious intruders and to collect the war tax as well as collecting the tarrif fees on all traveling Merchants that come into Hearth who don't have a pass." They informed me.

I need a Pass to enter the town? First time I heard about that.

"Right? War tax, are you sure it's not donations to buy a round of drinks at the tavern?" I jabbed my response at them that made them frown.

"Haha, funny… I wonder if your tongue will keep it's cheeky remarks when we tear it off? Once we accuse you of spying, no one will know where you've ended up. Now shut your sodding trap and pay up!" He rudely poked me in the chest, boasting out his threats in order to cow me into submission. It won't work a second time, I've made sure of that the first time someone tried.

My eyes narrowed at their corrupt actions and my Personnel behind me were getting agitated and eager to respond to his threats. They won't act unless necessary or on my order, so I trust them to not act irrationally here.

I looked them both In the eyes, my scathing gaze locked with theirs. "I'm not paying you a fucking copper. Do you think I'm an idiot to believe your lies? War tax, really?" I snarled at them, my piercing gaze made them flinch in apprehension.

One of them managed to appear brave and he came forward with his declaration. "Then I'm afraid we're going to have to arrest you, spy. Come on, Jasper, Cuff him!" The one who called out to this Jasper had his hand held firmly on the pommel of his sword.

I looked to his right, at his partner. 'So this is the supposed Jasper that the Merchant was on about.'

 **Speech check needed(15%)**

"So you're Jasper? Hm, tell me…How's George doing these days? Doing good?" I spoke to him in a seemingly friendly Gesture, but with an underlying threat laced underneath.

 **Success!**

 **+25XP**

The speech skill 'Silver Tongue' was something that I managed to learn off of the Merchant, it works in all kinds of situations like Persuading, Negotiating, Deceiving, Threatening, and all sorts.

And it worked, the threat hidden underneath my friendly-ish tone was well received by this Jasper as he lit up in sputtering horror and his face lit up more in embarrassing shame and fear than rage, like he's been caught red handed peeping on the girls in the shower rooms.

"Eh? Who the fucking hell is George?" Japser's partner in crime spoke up curiously.

And then his shame morphed into horror and desperation as he averted his gaze and made to stop his friend.

"Nope, nothing's wrong here. Definitely no spies here… Just some helpful merchants, no dangers here, move on." Jasper immediately dismissed us and made to immediatly leave the scene and forcing his friend to step aside.

"What the…? Jasper what's gotten into you, ya daft bastard!? You just let 'em go!"

"I said move on! As in Leave 'em be! They're only Merchants. They've got to earn some money too, you know. We've got bigger worries to sort out than this lot" Jasper argued back insistently.

But we could've made off with a great load of gold there! And also weren't we told to look out for any suspicious characters carrying pis-" his partner counter argued.

"But fuck all, I'm not having any of it!" The Guardsman stormed off, leaving his partner behind puzzled and confused by the reaction and his refusal to go through their plan.

As this was happening, I signalled to the convoy to move on, leaving them behind to their arguing as I went on to find the tavern only to find the Merchant was already there on his Wagon waiting for us.

* * *

The Merchant openly laughed. "If only I could've seen his reaction to my discovery."

"So what's the deal with this George anyway? Why'd he react so badly to that?" I asked him.

"You mean the reason why he lit up like a ripe tomato? They're lovers, plain and simple." He shrugged in response.

"Oh…" I briefly showed a bit of surprise in my eyes before it went. I should've known that really, it was pretty obvious now that I thought about it. I could only shrug on with a bit of a snort of laughter. "What's his problem then? Why's he acting so ashamed about it?"

The Merchant shook his head and corrected me"It's not shame of being discovered that he is gay he was afraid of, it was the fear of getting caught as a gay man that set him off. He was fearing for his life as well as his lover's, because the penalty for it is a rather cruel one, or so I've heard" The Merchant answered.

I nodded my head in understanding. "How bad is it for anyone who is a Homosexual, getting caught in Halkeginia and all that?"

The Merchant scratched his bandana covered chin before answering "Well…Not as bad as you think actually... In the Brimiric Kingdoms, the people of Trsitain and Gallia both have become…quite lax and tolerant about their views on homosexuality, but it doesn't mean that's it's not frowned upon in the Brimiric Kingdoms, especially the nobles. It's just that the punishment for it is pretty tame or non-existent, but otherwise it's just them being homophobic about it. For Romalia, it's stricter… well there isn't any Homosexuality down there as it is expected of them to hold up it's reputation and their public figures as a celibate and dedicated organisation of the holy capital of the entire continent's religion.

Germania, no problem for them as they partake in all kinds of explicit and immoral bedroom activities behind closed doors. Their reasons are actually quite sound if you think about it… how most of them live is by the ideal of 'we're all going to die someday, so why not live a little?'. Whether their lover is a man or a woman or both, doesn't matter to them as they are a nation that a large number of the population boasts about being passion itself, much to the Brimric Kingdom's ire and disgust." The Merchant explained thoroughly.

I nodded in response, seeing it reasonable enough. I have to admit… Germania didn't sound that bad, probably just misunderstood, but let's leave it as debateable topic for now.

"And Albion?" I asked of him about the final entry.

"Hmm… they used to have the same approach about that subject like their neighbouring Kingdoms, but that all soon changed by the time Reconquista rose to power, especially since you have a highly opportunistic and fanatical Ex priest who is… supposedly in charge of it all. They quickly rose to power and all sorts of followers rose up with them. General Laws, social mandates and religious decrees, they've all been changed to suit Reconquista's best interests of their own perfect little worlds." He explained.

"So they've all introduced laws that make them reminiscent of the dark ages of Europe when the Catholic Church was around at the time?" I inquired.

The Merchant shook his head, negatively "Not introducing them per-se, they're more re-introducing the old ways thousands of years before those laws and decrees were abolished. The majority of Reconquista's most devoted religious members are giving themselves more power to spread more influence in their religion all over the continent that way."

"Why were the inquisition abolished all those year ago?" I asked.

"The Church way overstepped their bounds and dug their own graves when they ordered one of the princes of old in Gallia, the third born prince to be exact, to be executed for sodomy without trial, because the prince at the time was fairly known for his trysts with a younger gay man who was a nobleman. The Inquisition, a highly controversial and fanatical organisation loyal to the Founder's Church and they are the Pope's personal agents. When they discovered this and in their irrational outrage, they abducted him from his royal quarters in the palace and staged his execution the very next day in the afternoon in the public square in front of thousands of witnesses that gathered round.

Unfortunately for them, The Gallian Royals were very angry for their audacity of daring to execute their prince without confronting them first. It was suspected that the King and the queen knew of their son's action, as did the public, but they all loved him all the same. You see, the prince was a very popular public figure among the civvies and a majority of the nobles in Gallia and was well loved by his family too that they overlooked his behaviour simply because they loved him too much to even be offended by it. He was easy to talk to and he was to them the most friendliest guy you could ever know.

The Inquisition order suffered greatly from that incident that earned them their disbandment and scorn for their costly mistake, as their illegal execution trial was thwarted by rioting civilians and the intervention of the elite palace guards when they started unlawfully killing innocent civilians speaking out against them and throwing projectiles at them. Once the first blood was drawn from a captain of the inquisition, it was already too late for the palace guards to quell the angry mob as they swarmed him in seconds and ripped him apart, literally.

After that, it ended in a massacre of innocent Gallain civilians and the Inquisitors involved. All of Gallia had been outraged, and also adding to the fire was the disgust and outcries of their neighbours calling for the resignation of the Pope and the disbandment and the heads of all the perpetrators involved.

After the disbandment of the inquisition and the inauguration of the new pope, life carried on as normal in all of the kingdoms with Germania looking on with amusement, but with hints of change here and there to the laws of the church's policies that gradually eases down over the years and things did grow positively peaceful for a time.

But now…Cromwell and a majority of Reconquista in the present… all of them want to bring back the old glory days of when their precious religion reigned supreme. Since they believe that every Monarch and the Pope in Romalia have grown too lax, incompetent and especially all of them lacking the will of what must be done, they believe it is the duty of the noble mage to take up the mantle of leadership and then lead all of humanity towards their true destiny." He said mentioning that last familiar part to me that made me frown.

"The Crusades into the Holy lands… they'll be condemning themselves to death, or worse over an impossible task" I muttered out with a bit of cold steel lacing my throat. It was obvious that it was going to fail, since Reconquista were not learning that not only were they outmatched against the Elves, but they were forgetting several key reasons on why they will lose since the first time. I should know, since the crusades that happened on Earth once upon mainly failed due to several key reasons.

 **The Huge Cost of Crusading**

 **Distance**

 **Tremendous Logistical Difficulties**

 **Tactical Failures**

 **Strategic Failures**

 **Changes in Latin Christendom**

But the main reason on why Reconquista will fail in their conquest would be their failure to adapt and evolve. The Elves hadn't moved from their position for years, so they still hold on to their positions in the so called holy lands and they are still powerhouses, yet no one had thought of any methods to counter them.

The merchant nodded to my answer "Yes, that already proven failure of a campaign they want to invest and sacrifice the whole continent and its people for is already doomed to fail from the start, but that's not the main reason to be cautious of them. It's the fact that they could be the cause of bringing forth a new Dark age era reminiscent to ours, like the second coming of it or plunging it further into the abyss." He spoke as if he was forewarning us about the future.

"Oh…Shit" I could feel the bile trying to rise up from my throat as the thought about it rested in my mind.

"Think about it, there may be daily persecutions of the heretics, purging anything suspected of heresy like books and ideologies, more frequent crusades, the newly formed Inquisition order that acts like a secret police force, intolerance to other races and religions, erratic reformations and holy wars, restrictive laws and heavy Sanctions against the non-magic users, all of that will likely be common place in the years to come if Cromwell remains in power that is clearly favouring the mages over everyone else."

I interjected to that with a small hint of scepticism. "Yet he failed in the canon of the anime, although in the novel it ended quite differently… what was it again?"

Misaki shook her head and added her own input " Not important, but how long will that be before Cromwell kicks the bucket and is replaced by another leader worse than the last one before that happens. What do you think will happen to this country before then? Besides, you should know better than to trust the events and realism of FOZ that doesn't show what is really going on behind the scenes in the country that is falling apart. The show you know is just really sugar-coating this world that you think you know where it is really an unforgiving place to the weak and the unfortunate"

I nodded as he raised a valid point there, I shouldn't wave this thing off completely just because I was unsure if Cromwell really would follow through in these actions for his so called vision of a true unified nation under one flag and one god. "Fair point… but… _what the hell am I supposed to do here!? Declare war on them right off the bat!? I'm not sure if I'm even remotely prepared for that scenario!"_ I hissed out that the thought of such an idea… unsettled me a bit.

"I'm only making suggestions here, Boss. You can either choose to intervene in this conflict if you want, or you can wait it out for a while longer until canon kicks into gear… and you shouldn't doubt yourself, Boss. You are certainly capable of intervening right now, but you definitely should pick a time to strike soon." Misaki offered a smile of support. "Whatever choice you choose, we're always with you." She said assuring me that I was not alone in this potential conflict threatening to spill and the Merchant nodded in agreement.

I sighed as my head dipped a bit as soon as he said that, but I knew he was right... it is impossible to just simply ignore the conflict and despair that's happening all around me. "I'll… think about it."

Misaki and The Merchant nodded and accepted his response.

I then lifted my head back up and decided to change the subject. "So what have you found in this town?"

The Merchant's face then lit up in eagerness. "I'm glad you asked! Well, I found several things in my research and snooping around the area. As you should know, there are four people to watch out for in this town, the Captain of the Guards, Horace, Baron Nellis McCoy, owner of a wealthy trading company, The father of the Church, Father Timms, and the Noble son of the late Count, Christopher Patrick Livingston, who is now the new ruler of Hearth after his father's death."

"What's the deal with them?" I asked, wanting to know more about them in case if any one of them were going to be a threat to me and my People.

"Well, for starters it's bad news for us… Marital law was heavily enacted upon this town after the count was reported to have been murdered in the forest. The count's son ordered for at least… 75% of the town's garrisoned forces to immediately hunt down the ones responsible for the atrocity. The total garrison of this town was 2000 men, meaning that there is now only 500 men, so that means whilst the rest of them are out there being led on a wild goose chase around the forest and across the countryside that's leading them nowhere, we should be safe in here provided that they stay put.

The boy noble himself is… in a more brutally honest term… a vicious, sadistic, spoilt little shit. The less said about him… the better.

The captain of the town's guards is as corrupted and as malicious a criminal as one can be. You've seen the state of the streets, the deserted shops and market stalls, the increase of poverty and the destroyed lives and the crippling depression that looms over this town? That's all his doing, on the orders and demands of the nobles who hire him. His pockets are lined with the gold of his employers, working under the wishes of those that seek harm against anybody that dares to stand in their way and is no stranger to bribes. He is the lapdog in Hearth for the nobles, especially to one particular Baron and he will do any dirty deed you ask him to. Steal that precious object, he's your thief. Torch that house, he's your arsonist. Kill that person…he's your murderer.

Next we have Father Timms… He's different from the rest. He's the type of person to be the pied piper who leads anyone susceptible to fear mongering, confusion, disorder and doubt. He's a master manipulator of the masses, controlling them through their fear all for his own self-gain and gaining beneficial financing through the suffering of others towards the support of Reconquista. The situation that the civilians under him that are suffering, they are at their most vulnerable sate of desperation that Father Timms has seen it and has ensnared them with his poisonous words and grand delusions that that has claimed many would-be followers. He's using the situation to his advantage in gaining loyal followers towards him, Reconquista and the Brimiric faith. Yet, he calls himself a loyal subject of Brimir… but I don't think he really is what he claims to be.

Not that Long ago he recently set an angry mob upon a travelling bard who moved and lived at Hearth for a good long while. Real up-beat fella he was, nothing ever seemed to bother him despite losing a leg to a previous war in the past. The Bard was a jolly man in his middle age up until recently, he's the type of man to be simply high on life and he pleased everyone in his travels with his music, singing and spectacular performances that he had a major talent and passion for. He even managed to gain himself a loving wife in this town, his life couldn't've gotten any better and thus he was already set and he was finally content with life right now.

However, Father Timms deeply abhorred the man, despite the fact that anger and wrath is a source of sin to the religious majority. He despised him because of the man's refusal to bow down to the lord and Founder's will, he hated him for his talents and his ability to move people's hearts and bring the community together was better than his own and that brought up his ugly side of envy and jealousy, but most of all… he hated the fact that an outsider who is not even from this country has managed to woo the woman he set his eyes on first, the woman he had lusted after for years, but he could never approach her due to his responsibilities as a loyal subject to the church. Ironic really, since the man himself is said to be a celibate and is said to be highly devoted to his religion, yet he couldn't refrain himself from his inner thoughts.

After Reconquista rose to power, he simply took the chance given to him by Reconquista and he encouraged the mob of the downtrodden, the poor, the weak and the angry people that suffered the most from this war that it was the Bard's entire fault that the town went to hell, why they were suffering, starving, and poor. A majority of people didn't listen to him, for they knew better that it wasn't his fault, but there were a larger majority that cared little for rationality. They were the ones that have lost everything, loved ones, businesses, and homes, everything they cared for, but they didn't know who to blame and thus they were lost.

But Father Timms used their emotions of their loss and their sorrows and turned it into a source of frenzied rage. He accused the man responsible for their torment, saying to them that his presence is a mockery to all of them. Why should they suffer than to see this man who is laughing joyously through all this, at their sorrow and despair? That he was the reason for their hunger and their loss of income, that he is a rotten cancer in their world. A bad apple that must be removed from the tree, such is the Founder's will and Father Timms will provide them a scapegoat for all of their anger and tension, and finally in his spite he got his long awaited revenge on the man he hated for years. The Bard found out too late that his friends and neighbours had suddenly turned on him as they all surrounded him and they all mindlessly tore him apart like a pack of rabid dogs. His wife and children forced to watch in horror, their attempts useless as they tried to pry each angry member of the mob until the bard was nothing but a bloody smear against the dirt in the centre of town"

As soon as the Merchant finished his tale, I was leaning back in my chair my eyes widened, clearly disturbed by this town's dark history a whole lot more "So we've got a spoilt tyrant, an opportunistic criminal, and a spiteful so called zealot… great, coming here was a great plan. I wonder who the fourth man will be?" I grumbled dryly. 'Is there a reason for me to save this town that would so easily betray one another?' I secretly thought.

The Merchant seemingly read my mind "Despite what you may think about the town, it does have it's charming points about it…most of it being gone the moment they fell from grace, but It's not all doom and gloom around here yet, Boss. We can still salvage this, see that guy over there?" The Merchant pointed towards this grimy looking fellow with a balding head filled with grey hairs and he had a mean looking face on that was grumbling away whilst he was wiping the inside of a cup with a dirty rag. "That's the Landlord of this place, Charming fellow he is."

"Yeah…charming…" I deadpanned at the way he spat into the cup and wiped it in. 'lovely…' I deadpanned in slight disgust.

"Well~… take a look at this" He slammed a piece of paper onto the table. I looked at the contents of the document and I discovered that it was a document that authorises the purchase of this tavern off of the current landlord's hands.

"You've got to be joking?" I looked at the Merchant incredulously.

The Merchant stared back at me, his gaze unmoving as he shook his head slowly "No…I'm not. The paperwork is already set and I just need his signature."

"What's the agreed price for this place anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Well…Judging by the condition of this place…realistically, it's barely worth much and we're more likely to be spending more just renovating the place alone. However, the landlord's being a stubborn mule about this or is just simply being indecisive and has thus still not fully decided on a price for the place yet. He doesn't really seem to be the type to really know about the worth of his building, but I'm not going to tell him that, Hehehe!." He chuckled mirthlessly.

I deadpanned at the ruthless business like nature that the Merchant had "But what is the point in this?" I pointed at the permit.

"Think back to our conversation back at the dining room table, the amount of money we could make from our cuisine, our brands of drinks and the comforts of our rentable rooms. Food and drinks they've never tasted or even heard of before, beds so comfortable for the weary traveller they'd never want to wake up again, and unlimited hot water for them to clean themselves with!. All of that at affordable prices available to everyone, they'll be flocking in herds, I tell ya. Hell, we'll be like the McDonalds of all taverns, INNs and pubs pretty soon I can see it coming." He chuckled to himself.

I then recollected some of my past world experiences in the UK "They actually have somethings like that in the UK for pubs, it's called Wetherspoons and The Premier INN… although nowhere near as big as them." I contradicted his statement

"Pfft, close enough." He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes at his flippant response. "Fine, say we do go through with this… But how are we going to convince a large majority of people who don't have a lot of money to come here and buy our stuff when they have little to no money to spend?" I sincerely asked him.

"Offer them jobs?" Misaki offered

"That could work, but ideally we're trying to make more money here in the long term and these people can't support themselves. Besides, I know that there is this one noble, which finally leads me to my fourth person to look out for around here, who will object strongly to that idea if it's not within the borders of this town where he will be losing business because of us." the Merchant informed her with a calculative look on his face that made Misaki purse her lips together. "But money wise, that won't be a problem since we'll soon be pumping out tonnes of money from our mines and other things when we get round to it. And for your information, a majority of people do have the money, albeit far less than what is considered a normal wage, but what do you think they mainly spend that money on?"

"Food." I said with a raised eyebrow as if it was obvious.

"Exactly…" The Merchant nodded. "Trust me, they have little interest in luxuries right now… it's bloody simple to get the people on our side if we target their stomachs first. As long as we have food and give them plenty of opportunities to get them back on their feet, then they will flock to us in droves because we have what they need and want."

I sighed and then I nodded, accepting his reasoning "Alright… I'll go with this plan of yours. Is there anything else you want to report?"

"Yes actually, The Trade Hub in this town is really not all that is cracked up to be, but is what really drives this town economically that they've become a huge business organisation that are allied with Reconqusita. However, business and trade has become rather stale as of lately in this town since the civil war began and the trade company itself is the one to blame for many of the businesses and companies going bust. Not only that, the baron who owns that trading company has dominated the market in this region and one of the richest nobles in the north. He charges outrageous prices for his products that nobody but the nobles or anyone who earns a decent wage could afford. Nor does he care if he's paying fairly to anyone who wants to sell their wares to him. Farms and productive villages are making very little because of him, but does he care a little for anyone who can't afford the prices or his tariffs just to survive the winter? Not really, he wouldn't bat an eye if he is condemning a whole village to death by starvation or some other crueller fate. He even shamelessly commits bribery, mistreats his employees to that of slavery and also commits the worst illegal trade deals in broad daylight, now that Reconquista is in power, he can do whatever he wants. All he cares about is his money and luxuries he flaunts about and his company that is the largest in the north and is a ruthless businessman to boot." He explained this nobleman's nature with disdain in his tone, obviously disliking the nobleman's methods of doing business.

"And you said you wanted to set up shop here?" I asked of him, wondering why anyone would want to set up a shop here that will be in the sights of a dirty, greedy, black hearted, underhanded and corrupt businessman that will sooner dispose of us than tolerate our existence.

"I did?" The Merchant blinked before he stuttered and nodded his head enthusiastically. "I mean… yes, of course I did! This will be my first true test in proving my ability you, Boss! I mean, this bastard thinks he knows how to do business? Please… the only way to gain those profits is through the customers and all I need is loyalty, trust and respect from anyone who were wronged by him. If I take away everything that keeps his company running… I will effectively be bleeding him dry." He sniggered with a low evil chuckle. "And do you know what, He owns the only trade company in the north that he essentially dominates the trade market in the entire region, so there is nobody else to truly challenge him and his monopoly empire and even his business partners, employees, traders and branch companies hate him all the same that he's essentially digging his own grave. This makes it all the more fun when I watch as I…we eventually take everything he deems precious away from him." he chuckled, doing a great impression of Mark Hamil's 'Joker'.

Me and Misaki looked briefly at each other with a sweat drop as the Merchant was doing a perfect impression of dastardly and evil villain. I was going to stand up and leave him to it until Misaki placed a firm hand on my arm and gently pulled me back down into the chair.

I knew something was wrong when Misaki sensed danger, she was'nt being rough with me she was just looking out for me. "Something wrong?"

Misaki nodded her head towards a certain group sitting on the other end of the room. "Trouble." She simply said, noticing a possible threat.

I briefly gave a good look to the said threat and noticed that these men were soldiers, obviously drunk and disgruntled. One of them was looking at a wooden support pillar next to his table, it looked as if something used to hang there judging by the marks and the lack of dust and he was obviously upset by it.

"Oi,Barman! Where's the sigil of the Albionian three headed lion!?"

"Took it down, this ain't Albion no more." The barman/Landlord sniffed derisively.

The man slammed his hands down on the table that startled nearby people. "My arse it is!" He seethed aggressively. "Those are our coat of arms, the Three headed Lion! You've no right in taking them down!"

"It's my fucking Tavern, my fucking rules! Look around you, Reconquista owns this town now! it's their coat of arms that are hung up on every flag and walls after they slaughtered the last lord who owned this town. You don't like it? You can fuck off!" The barman spat back at the disgruntled group of four soldiers.

"Who are they?" I asked to my comrades and friends.

"Patriots, all of them are drinking rounds to soothe their losses of their pride and to their fallen country and town. Their fists are already itching for action." Misaki spoke up, his hand reaching towards her holster as if noticing the tense atmosphere. "There are no enemies to fight in this pub and it would be a death sentence for them if they did fight their past enemies they are sworn to now, so they'll settle for another foe."

I narrowed my eyes and nodded and kept my head low and my hand ready for action in case. "We should probably stay out of this. This doesn't concern us." I said to them. "But if they try anything against us, no guns." I warned them. No doubt that any gunfire will instantly give our cover away and inform the noble who is looking for us of where we are.

"So it's true what they say then, so what… you Reconquista's manwhore are ya? Do wiggle your arse about to invite them in or do you kneel before them and polish their cocks with your tongue!" the soldier spat out venomously.

The Landlord could only sigh in frustration before he gave a hard glare at the man who made the comment. "Watch what you're saying around here! Too many ears and eyes are open… you don't know who might be listening in… I'll let what you've said pass, I know grief when I see it." He said in sympathy, but it only aimed to aggro the drunken man more.

"You know fucking shit! I've had to watch as they slaughtered my family and hanged my friends. Have you ever felt grief or guilt as I was made to drag out a poor mother's teenage daughter by the hair because the child refused to bow down to our master's will? Do you fuck! You've known nothing but the solitude of your piss poor tavern that barely makes jack shit and you only make a living off of our drowned sorrows! You did absolutely nothing while we were bleeding out hearts out and breaking our backs in defending this town and our country, where were you!" he grabbed the man over the counter in violent outrage.

"Let me go!" the barman grunted as he was struggling to push the angry soldier off of him. But he was only rewarded when the soldier slammed his head nose first into the countertop repeatedly.

I had enough of this as I immediately stood right up, forgetting what I just said a few moments ago as I signalled to the Personnel outside who rushed up to the soldier and grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him off of the landlord as I kind of needed him. "That's enough! You've had too much to drink, now get out of here before you'll do something you'll regret!" I called for them all to stop, but they were too eager for a fight and they were already past that point beyond reasoning.

The Soldier spat on the floor and lunged at me until he was countered with a high boot to the face that sent him toppling over, courtesy by Misaki. His friends tried attempting to jump on me but they were immediately swarmed by my personnel waiting outside who were led by Misaki that had swarmed into the tavern and tackled them to the floor and then they all beat them black, blue and bloody with fists, boots and blunt batons, night sticks and truncheons, whilst the rest of the people in the tavern just looked on without a care in the world.

I was just minding my own business as I just took out my hipflask and downed a bit of whiskey just to deal with all of the upcoming bullshit that was soon to happen. As soon as they had their arses handed to them and kicked out, the landlord stood up from behind his bar counter, his face scowling in fury. "Right, that's it! I've had it with this fucking shithole of a town! Oi, Merchant!?" he shouted for The Merchant.

The Merchant raised his head and approached the landlord almost as if he glided across the floor towards him. "Yes~? Changed your mind?"

The Bartender nodded with a huff. "Yeah, you were right. This tavern is doing me no good in staying here. I can do so much better in the capital or even somewhere on the continent. Hand me the paper, I'll sign the bloody thing." he said snatching the paper off of the Merchant as well as the fountain pen he provided for him, although he paid little attention to such a device that revolutionises writing tools. I had to admit he was not too bad at writing, although it was a bit messy, but it should do.

"There, there's my fucking signature or whatever. Now hand me my damn gold!" He huffed and demanded.

The Merchant checked over the details and nodded. "Everything appears to be in order" The Merchant said as he reached into his coat and handed him a hefty bag full of gold coins. In my vision I noticed on my HUD that my GMP went down by 31,000GMP, didn't appear to be a huge loss though so I wasn't fussed about it.

The Landlord didn't appear to care either if it was too much or too little as he cheered at the wealth in his hands and laughed maniacally. "Hahahahaha! How fucking filthy rich I am!? Yes! I'm off to Londonium to spend the rest of my days, drunk as a lord! Ahh, Bless you sir! Bless you and goodbye and fuck all of you! WOOOoooo!" The Landlord Cheered and ran off out of the tavern flipping every customer the bird. I wasn't sure if he believed that to be a huge sum of money, or the Merchant had ripped him off. Didn't really matter anyway, he's already signed the documents and that's that.

"What just happened?" a new person appeared on the scene a few moments later, a teenage girl abut 18-19 who looked quite pretty appeared with a rather dull and plain bar maid's uniform. "I just saw Greg running out the tavern, laughing like a loon holding a hefty back of what appears to be gold. Then I saw him riding out of the gates on his cart in a hurry. Can someone explain to me what's happening here?"

"Oh, Claire!? You'll never believe what just happened…Greg sold the Tavern to those strangers there. They're the new owners now." One of the tavern regulars informed the barmaid.

"EHHH!" the barmaid cried out in shock and horror as she immediately slammed her forehead onto the floor in a grovelling position right by my feet. "Please don't kick me out! This is the only job I have in this town! I'll do anything, just please don't sack me!" she wailed and begged desperately.

I sighed before I crouched down and patted her on the shoulder to calm her down from her jumping to conclusions "Relax, you've not lost your job. The place is just under new management, that's all." I calmed her down, ignoring the **[Speech/Charm success notification]** and she rose up from her grovelling and frowned/pouted at us, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Right… sorry about that, it's just…been hard on me is all. Greg wasn't the best boss around here, mean old bugger he was. He could barely afford to keep me around, let alone run this tavern any further as it'll either soon fall to bits or worse." She spat out the last owners name like tasting something rotten.

"Fortunately, that won't happen as soon as we renovate the place. Were there any other workers I this tavern that I should be aware of?" I assured her before I asked of her for any possible staff members she could recommend.

"Oh, yes!… there were 4 others who were former barmaids like me and they're really good at their job, taught me all I knew around here. Unfortunately Greg and the other taverns in the town had to let them go due to upkeep costs and because he was stingy bastard or the other taverns ran out of business. I'm sure they'll be overjoyed at getting their jobs back again." she smiled gratefully at having her friends back again.

"Good, get them over here." I nodded and Turned towards my Merchant. "Can we start with the renovations now?"

"Give Berthold and the engineers the command and in a few hours, and it'll be ready for ya. Till then…" he turned towards the other customers. "Everybody out! We're renovating the place, so come back later in the evening!" he called for them to scram, much to their grumbling annoyance before complying.

"Right, whilst they're busy, we'll start and finish with what we came here for." He said before I finished a swig from my Hip flash and tucked it away inside my coast and exited the building before letting past the Engineers with their tools and building supplies who were now covering the whole building in scaffolding and a blank canvas tarp that covered it from view seemingly in an instant that made bystanders gawk in shock and awe at how quickly they work. You can just hear how enthusiastic they were in their work by the sounds of hammers, saws and demolition work. The building should only take a few hours at best, as I left my chief engineer and his subordinates to it with their job.

* * *

We arrived at the McCoy Trading Company and I have to say, it was a pretty swanky and seemingly professional and business looking building alright that does give off the air of proper a trading company in a fantasy medieval setting sort of sense, but without the whole lavish wealth that was obviously apparent about this place. The reception was like a waiting area with many seats and tables where travelling Merchants of their own trade did their own business or waited for their names to be called for their appointments or waiting in long ques in order for them to negotiate a price for their wares they wish to sell to the company.

There was the reception desk right in front of the entrance and behind it were two ladies dressed in a white blouse and black skirt, one of them was light blonde reaching down to her shoulders and the other was a chestnut brunette with a headband.

"Good day to you good sirs, how may we help you?" they greeted us with a polite smile. They knew how to be professional, alright. And for normal civilians, they are beautiful. You could've easily mistaken them for nobles with their mannerisms, but I can tell that they don't share their similarities in snobbishness.

I decided to be polite and charming to them, best to give a god impression despite the way my face was hidden from view from the bandages. "Hi there… We're a relatively new company and we've got an abundance of wares to sell to anyone looking to buy from or sell to us, I was told that you could help us." I enquired to them after ignoring the public outburst of this one travelling merchant a couple of meters away from me who came from a rather poor village who were struggling and he was begging one of the staff members of the trading company on the other end of the entrance hall who were inspecting the quality and quantity of the items he brought in and they seem to be potatoes and vegetables that looked pretty decent. Unfortunately, the total price for them came out at 55 Pounds ( **Albion's highest currency, not to be mistaken by Tristain's currency of ECU** ), whereas the trader needed 80 pounds for his village to last the winter. The Merchant whispered to me that there was enough food in there to worth at least 96 Albion pounds, or in my currency of GMP, that would make it…about £13,000 for the delivery and in modern day modern currency as well to share in a village of about..30 people or more. Goes to show how corrupt this company is.

The company was clearly ripping him off, and the trader knew that they were as he begged for them to increase the price or else his village will starve and then started to spit out curses at the company staff when they refused before the guards kicked him out of the building. The staff members did look guilty by it, but company rules were very strict and their fear of losing their job outweighed their sympathies for the poor and unfortunate.

The receptionists that were attending to me were actually very polite and kind as they beamed when they heard that I was here for business, but they did wince a bit after witnessing yet another incident with an unsatisfied customer.

"Certainly…If it's anything legal to trade here, we're happy to buy it all from you. However, you will need to apply for a Sale's Permit from the town's Mayor and pay a fee if you wish to set up a legal business in this town. Do you happen to already own an establishment within the town or elsewhere?" The Blonde Receptionist asked.

"Yeah, the Free Trade Tavern that I recently bought after the last owner sold it to me before running off. So I would need a permit for us to legally sell our wares in town? If you'd be so helpful, could you point me in the direction of the Mayor's office" I asked politely.

"Greg's sold the place!?" Jenny suddenly spoke up, startled in horror.

I nodded at her startled expression, feeling rather curious by her reaction. "Yeah, I'm the new owner."

"W-what about Claire, you're not going to make her redundant are you?" Jenny stammered and slammed her hands on the desk, completely losing her professional cool as I leaned back slightly startled. "Please, it's the only Job she can get around here!" she begged.

"Jenny! Get a hold of yourself!" Angela gasped for her colleague and friend.

"Ah!...err, sorry about that it's just..." she tried calming herself down, but the nerves were getting the better of her.

"Are you sisters by any chance?" I looked at the young adult near my age.

"Y-Yeah… my family is struggling enough for money ever since **they** moved in." she pointed at the other end of the hall where the offices of the trading company reside where a member of Reconqusita was seen walking out of an office with a smug grin on his face, patting his coat pocket after stuffing a money pouch in there. "My mother owns a bakery with my youngest sister working there as she has the talent for it and my sister luckily managed to grab a job at the local tavern, whilst I was the luckiest to get a job at the town hall as I was always the smartest in the family when it comes to accounting. My sister has worked there for nearly five years now, ever since she was 14, whereas I worked here ever since I was 17 and that was also five years ago."

I blinked at that number…so young, and risky for one so young to be working at a tavern filled with perverted and violent drunks. And did she say her mother's a baker? Huh, now I can see the resemblance they both share with Linda… "Well you can be assured that your sister hasn't lost her job, in fact you could almost consider her having a pay rise and promotion in a sense."

"Really?" she perked up, feeling slightly relived.

"Yeah, we're renovating it for starters. We plan to make everything affordable with the best rooms to rent and excellent food and drink for our guests."

Jenny crinkled a delicate brow sceptically but shrugged. "Well, if you say so..."

"Do you have a name for your company you wish to call it?" Angelea soon chimed in as she was filling in a document for the transaction.

"Wait, I don't have a company formed Yet, but we're getting there"

"Oh, It's in name only that needs to be documented for the records. You never know when you might one day found your very own company as soon as you start your own monopoly, so good luck to you." She smiled.

"Oh... then… It's Terra Nova Industries. "I informed her about the company name, again with the Terran naming complex. I was seriously shipping that name about as it sounded quite good in my head.

"Hm…Unique name" Angela raised a brow at that but shrugged and nodded, deciding not to question it as she filled the piece of information into the document.

They both seem to accept the name and decided to move on and filled out every document necessary. "Okay, everything checks out, If you'll just sign your name here please and fill in the details here and here…" she pointed out the details that I needed to fill in, even giving out my name, not like it really means much around here, but I decided to read through the terms and conditions of said contract and documents and I also shared it with the Merchant as we both read through it.

I nodded and thanked them both for their time. I have to admit, I was feeling quite excited about this, starting my very own company. I'll have to research through the rules and guidelines…but I think The Merchant can look through that, he'll be able to understand it better than me.

"Hah!? What's this!? I was wondering what was holding up the que and it turns out it was a mummified merchant, that's certainly new!" I turned towards the Trading store again to see the manager of the store himself, Baron Nellis McCoy. The man himself was wearing a red fur collared doublet with golden button and white breeches with a belt fastened by a golden buckle. On his head was a rather puffy hat with a fluffy white feather on top. His hair was a balding mop of blonde hair and his face was chubby with the way his cheeks puffed out like a certain fish.

"Well, what's the hold up!?" The Manager of the trading store huffed impatiently.

I only rolled my eyes at his nobleman's attitude towards me, as if my presence left him disgusted. "Pardon us, but we were looking through the terms and conditions. We're a new company looking to trade." I informed him

"Oh, I see… well then, let's have a look at what you've got. No doubt it's anything worth looking at anyways, more commoner rubbish I bet." The rich manager sneered as he snatched a document away from Jenny who The Merchant had handed a list of our wares to.

His face wore a perpetually obnoxious sneer, until a few minutes later the sneer wore off and it soon morphed into shock and disbelief. His cheeks were pouring out sweat, his eyes erratic in proof reading the document several times to check if he wasn't dreaming and his fingers trembling from holding the paper as if it weighed several tonnes.

"M-Mr Crowshaw…was it?" he nervously muttered out my name, no doubt reading my name from the paper. At least he was trying to be polite, albeit it did sound forced. No doubt he was smacking his lips eagerly over a big juicy and delicious deal he believes he was going to get out of this, we'll see about that.

"That is my name." I nodded.

"Yes…Err, it says here that… you have spices, meat, wine, weapons, armour and gold? Is this correct?" he announced making several bystanders and the receptionists startled by the news.

"It's what it says on the document." I confirmed.

"Well… may I see them?" he said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"You may..." I nodded, my facial expression betraying no my face that hid my disgust for this man that was covered in bandages, it would sort of make me nearly invincible in poker… if I was any good at it. "But let me first show you a sample of what we have made, before we show you the rest of the merchandise."

I then held out my hand towards the Merchant who handed me two small sealed pouch containers that I placed on the desk. The receptionists then both unsealed the pouch and peered inside… their reactions were of awe… and confusion.

"Th-This is…" they both stammered in amazement.

"What!? Spit it out already, peasant!" The Baron spat out at them, impatiently that made me frown at his petulant attitude, it like dealing with such a demanding kid.

The two receptionists winced at his tone before they opened the bags up and showed the contents to their manager. The Manager snatched the two bags and peered inside.

His reaction as he inspected them both with his monocle that he fished out of his coat pocket which seemed to be magically enchanted to be an Eye loupe that acts as an item appraisal perk. I could see in his eyes that they were lighting up in amazement and then hunger, greed and lust as he inspected both of the contents.

"Such remarkable quality!… is this… are you sure this is Salt and Sugar?" he asked, obviously feeling rather self-conflicted by this discovery.

"I'm positive they are, since we made them… why?" I answered rather nervously by his strange reaction and by the tense and awkward atmosphere. Sure I wasn't all that fused since Salt and Sugar are rather common in the 21st century modern day earth.

"Hmm~…" he sighed through his nose in a small whistle, his hand shakily reaching for his monocle, barely containing his nerves from this discovery. "I've been… a merchant for most of my life before I founded this company, but… what I've witnessed here… is a masterpiece! I have never seen salt and sugar this white and clean before, and there is no funny smell to it either. Yet the taste to both of them is… beyond words…" he gulped nervously.

"Right…So~?" I said, waiting to see where this was going.

"I'll be blunt here… I want to buy all of them!" He did say… rather bluntly and forcefully.

"All of them?" I blinked in surprise at his forwardness. I wasn't expecting this. I was actually planning to save some of it for anybody else who is interested.

He nodded severely. "Yes! And anything else you may have that you wish to sell… How did you manage to come across these exquisite items?" he said, clearly salivating over the salt and the sugar.

"I've said it before…We made them." I said to him partly honest about it. I wasn't really going to inform him about my cheat ability now, was I?

He blinked in surprise."You did? Impossible! No commoner could make salt and sugar this white and clean! Unless… if you're a mage yourself, then that may be understandable, yet I've never heard of a mage accomplishing this! Who did you say you were again?" He spluttered out his arguements as he couldn't understand how we made them.

"Zachary Crowshaw, Chief Executive Officer of Terra Nova Industries." I introduced myself. "And I'm not a noble, nor am I a mage." I spoke out rather aloofly. '*Sigh!* can we get a move on, please!?' In my mind I was already sick of hearing his voice.

Nellis seemed to shrug off my introduction as if he no longer cared now that I ascertained that I was not a noble or a mage. ' _Cunt_ ' I snorted at his attempts at offending me.

"I see, and where did you make these?" His questions now sounded rather… demanding.

I blew off his question with a rebuke. "I'm afraid I'm not obliged in answering your questions about our trade and company secrets as it's a trade secret." I declared to him. "You as a former merchant should know." I said, providing him a reminder.

Baron Nellis Mcoy clicked his tongue in annoyance as he did know where I was coming from… A merchant never reveals their trade secrets, so he'll have to find out another way.

"So, how much are you offering for the salt and sugar?" I asked of him and also telling him how much of them we had in stock and that seemed to set him back on track as he began to calculate all the costs on an abacus that was located beside the desk.

'An Abacus, really?' I blinked in surprise as the nobleman was using a basic mathematical tool mainly used in Primary schools to help with calculations. I suppose mental calculations are a bit of a way off for him or this society in general, not to sound arrogant or anything. I think he's trying to calculate ways of decreasing the price to try and rip us off, but unfortunately for him… I have an S class Merchant by my side.

"Well… for them both, I'm offering… 4 Gold Pounds and 15 silver sterling's for both of them. "He announced, putting on his best businessman smile, which unfortunately his grin was all too obvious as the grin was more of a sneer, as if he was he believes he has already won.

 **(615 GMP)**

What!? That is nothing but pocket change! Who the hell does this cheap bastard think he is!?

 **(AN: I am no expert in business, as I don't know the price of salt and sugar hundreds of years ago and this is just me guessing and the fact that I'm using a currency converter for past currencies between 1270-2017 currency. This is about as accurate as I can get, boarding between trying and laziness)**

The Merchant thought so too. "That's wrong." He shook his head I disagreement.

The Baron froze and turned to glare at the Merchant, daring to speak against him, a noble. "Excuse me?"

"You're not factoring the quality of the sugar and salt in this deal. Do not mistake this as common sugar and salt. Also, are you buying one of them or both?" The merchant said, his voice low and testy, he was in his businessman mode… and he has acquired his target.

The Baron scowled in annoyance for the interruption. "Very well, four pounds for the salt and eight for the sugar." He offered.

 **1350GMP *Cha-Ching!***

The Merchant only narrowed his eyes, not impressed by such a shallow offer.

The Baron Gritted his teeth, forcefully smiling as his brows were pooling with his own sweat by such a menacing glare. "It seems… that the offer was too low?" He said rather obviously. "Then… how's about… 15 Gold pounds for them both?" he offered again, this time sounding desperate.

 **1700GMP *Cha-Ching!***

"Is this a joke to you? The Merchant raised a rough scarred brow at him, his glare accusing him.

The Baron cursed mentally before giving off a mocking grin back at him. "If you don't like our prices? Then feel free to go look for another trading shop. Oh wait… we are the only company in this line of business around here, Hah!" the Baron chortled. He had a point there, as much as I dislike admitting it because he's the only one with a store that has completely monopolised the market in all of Albion's northern regions so he's free to set the price to what he wants, despite the marketing price for salt and Sugar would be significantly higher than what he was offering right now.

"16?" He tried again to assert his dominance in the deal for a price to the Merchant. However, he was underestimating his will.

 ***JIIIII!*** Okay, I never knew the Merchant could be this intimidating during a deal. It's as if he's going to war with the way his eyes are shadowed and glinting and also he was producing a rather intimidating aura.

Baron Nellis was started to feel the effects of nervousness and in his mind he was already started to falter "17!?" His offers sounding more and more desperate as he was trying to get the upper hand in this deal but the Merchant refused to budge.

 **1900GMP**

"18 Pounds!? That generous enough!?" He threw yet another offer that proved yet another failure as the Merchant's will was unyielding.

Then, the Baron lost all reasoning as he fished out a pouch of gold coins onto the desk "20 Gold pound coins, ( **2200GMP)** that's my final offer! That's all I can give you and I'll... also get you a sales permit in the town centre, and the park and even the upper shopping districts for the salt, sugar you're offering!" He sounded rather desperate as his nostrils were flaring and his face flushed. It wasn't an angry face, more like he was acting as if he needed what we had.

I then perked up at the sound of a sales permit, so he actually has one himself? I thought that only the Mayor had the right to distribute them, were they extorted? Meh Anyways, we were finally getting somewhere as I intervened on the Merchant riling him up even further as the Baron himself looked ready to snap. "We'll consider a deal, if you show us the permit" I said, sternly, offering no room for arguments.

The Merchant shrugged and accepted his orders and unfolded his arms and placed them back in his pockets, unknowingly to everyone he was smiling gleefully judging by the outline of his facemask.

The baron nodded hurriedly as he ordered his secretary to fetch the permit from his office.

A few minutes later, I was given a legitimate Sales permit that legalises my business anywhere in the town. I nodded as I turned to the Merchant and nodded my head towards the Merchant who provided the Baron a sheet of paper. "We have a deal, if you'll please sign here."

The Baron refused to meet my gaze as he rushed towards the contract order and signed his own signature hurriedly. I stuck out my own towards him, now to finalise the deal. "Do we have a deal?" I offered my hand to him. Although the Baron was reluctant in shaking hands with a commoner, but he quickly swallowed his pride and accepted the hand before he rushed over towards the salt and sugar that were two large pouches each, holding them closely towards his man bosoms like he was holding two precious puppies.

"Wonderful!" he grinned deviously as he was plotting in his mind about the possibilities for these products. "Now, where are the rest of them?"

"Of what?" I feigned ignorance to his question.

"The salt and sugar, you have more of them, right!?"

"Would you like to buy them too?" I asked of him.

"B-Buy them? But… I already own them!" The Baron spluttered out indignantly.

"Actually, no…" The Merchant held out the contract, specifically the purchase order and placed a finger over two specific items and the amount the Baron just bought. "What you've just bought was the amount specified in the transaction. You have agreed on the order of the amount of Salt and sugar that we agreed to sell." The Merchant explained, somehow I can feel that he's enjoying this.

"Y-you tricked me!" The Baron pointed his finger, accusingly at the merchant. Feeling humiliated at buying such a little amount with too much money.

"Oh no, the amount was clearly specified in the order, you just didn't read it. It was all there for you, plain and clear." The Merchant feigned innocence as he showed the transaction paper, much to the Baron's rising anger and humiliation.

" **G-Guards! Get them, I've been cheated! And seize their caravans too!"** He roared out for his guards before he was about to reach inside of his doublet and brandished his own sleek looking wand and was about to use it when… he froze… he looked about for his guards, but they were still on standby. Apparently, they hadn't heard his orders to seize the, until he realised, the words had gotten stuck in his throat. He had imagined himself saying those words, but he actions were thwarted by the feeling of pure creeping up his spine, controlling his movements.

'What is this… feeling. It's as if… I'm being watched by a…' he was about to think up a proper response until he saw her, the black raven haired silent beauty with the looks of a fallen angel…Beautiful, but deadly. Her glare watching him intently, telling him… " **One wrong move…try it…"** she was warning him, even daring him to make a move. He could stop him right here, right now… but, for some reason, something was telling him to swallow his pride further and just accept the deal and walk away… and in his fear, he made his decision.

"Take it and go!" He removed his hand from within his coat, and turned towards the stairway leading towards his office with both pouches of salt and sugar in hand, stomping all the way.

"Smart choice, for a moment there I was thinking there was going to be a problem." I sighed in relief.

"Th-That was amazing!" Jenny said in awe, almost rejoicing over the fact that the fat greedy manager had been put in his place for once.

" _Shh, Jenny!"_ Angela hushed her friend and colleague. "As much as I agree with you, don't forget we still work here." She chastised her.

"Ah, you're right. In fact, it's probably going to get a lot worse with him around." She now said dejectedly.

*Raagh!* ***crash***

I heard the distinct crashing sounds of furniture being smashed in someone's temper tantrum going on upstairs and I noticed the employee's noticeable wince as they now had to deal with his foul temper now.

"Oh, now I feel bad… for of all of you." I quickly corrected myself and showed sympathy for the staff.

"No, it's okay. We're used to it, I guess." Jenny sighed, rather down casted by the way her eyes seemed to dim, same with Angela's as her shoulders sank.

I could only feel worse by the way she looked so depressed by her work, I had to cheer them both up.

I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave a smile through my eyes. "Still, let me make it up to you both as thanks from me. When you're free from work, come over to the Free Trade. Trust me I think you'll both like what we've done to the place." I offered them both.

 **Charm successful! +25XP**

Both of them had a brief blush on their face before they smiled at my generous offer. "Sure… although, I'm not sure how that's possible since you've only bought the place since this morning. So, yeah… we'll be there." They both accepted the invitation.

Once I had my answer, I nodded at their answer and bid them both a good day before leaving the company building. Glad to have finally left that rotten place.

"Boss, did you have to intervene in that deal? I had it all under control." The merchant mock pouted at me through his face mask.

"Sorry, but we needed that permit." I apologised to the Merchant. "Still, it wasn't a huge loss on our part."

"True." The Merchant nodded. "Although, I could've gotten us a lot more out of that deal…"The Merchant Drawled.

"How much more could we make without relying on them?" I asked him.

"Concerning our quality? We could be looking at tens or hundreds of thousands in profits with several 1kg sacks worth for both of them to sell off. And les not forget that we have many more where that came from along with others we have with us." The Merchant pointed out towards the convoy of loaded goods. "But, that's if you are planning to sell them at increased prices for their premium quality."

I could only nod in agreement, I wasn't going to fall to McCoy's level and selling them at four times the price of regular sugar and salt around here, but I was in a bit of a dilemma of what to do next. "So, what do we do now?" I asked him.

"What else, now that we are a legitimate business in the eyes of Hearth… Let's go make some money!" He said eagerly.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the company, specifically Nellis MCoy's office where He was sitting there with a sullen look on his face and a goblet of wine in hand. All his thoughts were circulating around one man and that one specific new business company.

'So, a new company, eh?… Feh! From the looks of them, they're all peasants, so what can they do? What does a stupid commoner know about the market, commerce and trade? I've been in this trading business for years, where all they've done is toil and ploughing fields! I'll give them a week before they go under, and that's me being generous.' He sniggered to himself before he went back to work in financing the day's morning income count, now feeling slightly better with himself, assured that he will get his last laugh in the end.

* * *

(Meanwhile, at the southern entrance)

The captain of the town's guard was doing an inspection upon a farmer. This farmer had been given a very specific task in providing grain for the town on order by the Count's son. The captain was given the task in inspecting the grain as he plunged his hand into the sack and picked out a handful of rye and looked at the cart and saw the pitiful amount of sacks on the cart. Unfortunately, the whole job for the farmer had been a set up by the Baron in a bid to dispose of him so he could seize his farm and land for himself.

"What the hell is this?" he pointed at the cart's flatbed.

"R-Rye, milord" An old doddery farmer in his late 60 stuttered in fear.

"Milord? That's Captain to you, peasant. Do I look like a bloody ponce mage to you? And for your information, I bloody well know what Rye is! I too was a farmer like you once, you know. Yet what I see here is obvious to me that this is nowhere near enough from the agreed amount you promised to deliver."

"M-Mercy Captain, but… The Rye had been sabotaged… I had to throw the rest away." The poor farmer pleaded his case.

A certain hidden individual was discreetly hiding himself a fair distance away behind a corner of a building eavesdropping on the conversation. He saw that the captain then reaching behind his back into a small pouch and picked out bits of rotten Rye, out of the view of the farmer. "Then how do you explain this then? Clearly you were not looking hard enough, do you want to poison your townspeople too?" he accused him, much to the horror of the farmer.

"But I… I didn't know…" the farmer was shocked by the revelation.

"So, a fool are you?…Che! Damn you people never learn…I've heard enough, its obvious here that I should've never trusted you in this task, you withering old fool! You've let your lord and the whole town down with your incompetence. And do you know what we do with incompetent sods like you?... For the delivery of defective good, 15 lashes… no make it 30 good lashes without a knout. Make it so!" And with those words, he condemned the farmer to a painful death over a simple mistake that he had no control over.

"Oh no, NO! By Brimir, NO! You can't do this to me!" The Farmer collapsed on his knees in despair and pleased with the captain who sneered at the farmer and smacked his hand away before ordering his men to drag him behind an alleyway before bringing out a whip with the knout before the lashing begun. The sounds were horrific as the whip tore through the poor farmer's back, his skin and muscles shredded. If he somehow survived it all, he won't be if he doesn't get his back treated. However, the farmer had little to no money in affording the treatment as Reconquista owns every medical facility that prioritises on mages and rich nobles and there were no cheaper methods in treating him.

He was fortunately spared from the latter fate as his poor heart couldn't hold on after the 15th lash against his back and died from circulatory shock.

* * *

I've heard what happened recently from a scout that an old farmer not that long ago who was the last independent farmer in the region had been murdered. The rest of the nearby farms were owned by the Baron and those farms were given unfair conditions where the advantages apply only to the Baron himself. I was warned by the Merchant about him, saying that I could be next for a target of his ruthless scheming. Many businesses had been helpless in secretly trying to get rid of him for years by sending in complaints to the Royal authorities, but the bastard was so underhanded that he had been given diplomatic immunity under Reconquista that they couldn't do anything now that the Royal influence had been ousted from the region.

Trade as a whole in the country had effectively been cut off from the country from all of the kingdoms and the empire on the mainland as Reconquista seized all trade routes coming in and out of the country in their territory and everyone refused to deal with a bunch of upstart revolutionaries, but there are still some people who would trade with the likes of them.

Production of goods and food was the only way the people could survive, not just gold, but with the war going on it had proved rather difficult as well as being fruitless in producing the grain and the components that make up the food supply or the supplies needed for the town's survival. Famine had spread amongst several communities and villages as well as regions that were deliberately caused by Reconquista in an attempt to weaken their enemies where even the Royalist Sympathisers were not exempt from this.

After we finished with our business with the trading company, we paid a visit to Linda and dropped off her request for our grain and flour now that we had our Seller's permit that recognised us a legitimate business around here. She was definitely pleased as well as relieved to be back in business again. After she paid for what she could afford at a discount we have given her generously on my behalf as I really wasn't at all that concerned with money right now. She then immediately went straight to work on the bread she planned on making. I stuck around as I was genuinely curious to see how good of a baker she was.

While it did take a few hours in creating and kneading the dough into the perfect texture, for Linda she was pleasantly surprised by how the dough felt in her hands, it was like noting she ever felt or made before and was like she was baking bread fit for nobility, but like hell she was selling her bread to the likes of them.

So whilst she was busy, I decided to check up on my R&D team's progress…

We have some new weapons that I can now personally summon. They were The Colt SAA/ Peacemaker (Single action army revolver firing the .45 Colt round), The Smith and Wesson model 3/ Schofield Revolver (firing the 44 S&W round), The Winchester M1876 (the longer barrel shooting the 44 Magnum and the shorter carbine firing the 357 magnum), the Martini Henry shooting (Firing an old classic modernised .577/450 Martini–Henry round) and lastly, the Gewher 1871 Bolt action rifle (Single shot only, firing the7.92×57mm Mauser round).

After I browsed a bit more at my Research team's development, the bread was finally done. I had to say that I was quite impressed by her skill and dedication, but it was her 13 year old daughter who took the prize as the most potentially talented baker. Linda brought the bread out on display after she announced it out on an advertisement board outside her door.

It only took less than 2 minutes before the first customers came rushing in through the door, ordering as many bread they could afford. It took less than 10 minutes for those two to become quickly overwhelmed.

"Need some help?" I offered to Linda.

"No offence, love, but what the hell do you know about baking?"

"I don't, but I do know some friends that can help you."

"Well…Suppose I can do with the extra help, but I ain't hiring them."

"That's fine, they answer to me anyways."

"Now aren't you handy, don't you think so Hannah?"

"Erm, Yeah… If you say so, mama" The girl said so shyly that she shuffled back into the kitchen back to work.

Linda could only sigh. "Haah! That girl of mine, no people skills whatsoever. She's lucky that she's so talented and skilled as a baker, otherwise she wouldn't have fared so well unlike her sisters."

"Bit harsh, don't you think?" I half reprimanded her.

"Oh not at all, as sweet as that girl is… she can't keep clinging onto my skirt forever, you know? She's just 13 and she still calls me mama. As much as I love her, the world is far too cruel for the likes of her. A mother can only protect her for so long." Linda spoke solemnly.

I nodded I understood where she was going with this, but there is that bit of me that can only accept so much of it before disagreeing with some of it.

"So, what's this I hear that Greg has sold the tavern to some mummified man and a hooded suspicious man carrying an overly large back pack and wearing a purple face mask?" She turned to look at me suspiciously.

"Ah, so you've heard about that?

"My daughter is the only employee there… did you really think I wouldn't know? What are your plans with the place?" she asked/ demanded of me.

"Renovating it" I answered simply.

"Ah, so then I was over reacting then? That's good… unless if you're…?"

"No, for the third time today I'm not making her redundant." I sighed in response, fed up of being asked the same question constantly.

She accepted my response, which was a good sign "Good, now we don't have a problem. She's a good honest worker, she is. It'll be a serious loss to your business if you lost her." She smiled and patted him on the shoulder, pleased with what she heard. "Now, about those helpers you were offering?"

"Don't worry, they'll be here shortly. Till then, I'm off to go and do some other business around town and then I'm going to see the progress on the opening of the new and improved Free Trade INN.

Linda blinked at that and looked at me as if I smoked anything. "Wait, what? It's only been a few hours, so why the bloody hell do you expect it to finish so quickly?"

"Because we work quickly" I answered.

"Right?… sure, I'll make sure to pop over later along with my daughter once last orders are done." She waved a hand and headed back into the store and tended to the bustling customers. "Oi, bastard! Get back and wait in the fucking que or I'll shove this rolling pin here up your arse!" I heard her bellowing at some impatient sod desperate for his bread before she came back in. "Do they happen to know how to knock some heads about? People are getting easily restless out here, I don't know if I can keep 'em from misbehaving by myself." She looked a bit anxious by the way it was so packed and busy in such a little local shop.

"Although not as skilled as a majority of my group are, but yes they are capable fighters in offensive defensive roles." I answered, assuring that they are capable enough in dealing with any unwanted disturbances.

"Yeah, whatever. Just get them over here quickly. These poor sods are overrunning my bakery!" she ranted.

Eventually, when the support personnel specialised in cooking and baking arrived, I gave them their orders to assist with the baking and to provide security measures on the place if anybody tried anything. They set off to work at such a brisk pace, much to the mother and daughter duo's delight before making my way out of the Bakery and leaving them too it.

Later, me and the Merchant hatched up a plan. Using my personnel and the Merchant's own subordinates or anyone he's hired in on the plan, we planned to spread the word out to several districts inside the large town including the lower districts that are also known as the town's slums.

There were many people who are likely to buy from us. The travelling tradesmen and merchants usually hang about in the town centre, looking to sell their wares or stocks to any potential buyers either from the populace or from shop/business owners. The lower districts were mainly the residential areas hit by a great economic depression and slowly degrading itself from the poverty. The shops located there were mainly local shops where you could buy basic necessities, but they were hit the hardest as businesses either dried up o as they were unable to afford to buy stocks to fill their shelves with due to the increased prices and heavy taxation on their businesses.

Worst of all, the rich baron had jacked up all of his prices, taxes and tariffs into stupid levels to the point that nobody wanted to buy from or even selling things to him and his company anymore as the thought of it is distasteful to many merchants, traders and customers alike as he languished under his own greed for more profit. Not only that, but he has bullied many people such as business owners, merchants and traders who were forced through blackmail into exclusive contracts and partnerships where they had no choice but to buy and sell from his company or forcing the bankruptcy of many companies, businesses and shops who refused him because of his unfair and ruthless company policies.

The Merchant started spreading word around the town who in turn spoke to several other traders and merchants in town who were desperate to sell their wares without being ripped off and even the shop owners all around town who were desperate for business from an honest trading company that won't force them to pay for overpriced goods. They will eventually turn up as they all had something in common.

Around 12 noon, in the town centre, we had set up shop as a legitimate Trading firm and we parked our wagons filled with all sorts of wares from contained food, harvested crops, preserved meat, fish, several assortments of leftover spices, and we even had our own supply of armour and weapons as well as equipment and a couple of luxury items. We also set up several empty tables for any interested customers looking to consign their goods to us. We were letting everybody in town know we were here for buying, trading or selling, no matter the person at a good honest and affordable price with no restrictions but we will be gaining 20% of the profits in sales as the fee, but it will be reduced by 10% if any agree to help out as an employee as a bonus. So in that regard, everybody wins… except McCoy.

Naturally, nearly the whole town's merchants, business owners and travelling merchants and tradesmen agreed and soon flocked towards us and the town centre nearly got packed the moment they got the notice. Merchants, traders and business owners alike were all surrounding me and the Merchant who I had set up for the task in convincing as many people as he could find to do business with. Naturally, I underestimated his S ranked businessman stats in convincing. There were hundreds if not thousands of them around here and many carts were parked in the town centre ready to load our stocks of wares to other towns, cities and villages who were in desperate need for food and supplies or merchants and traders who want to trade or sell their wares to us for a good honest profit for them and their homes without underhanded catches that McCoy's company is notorious for. I said to my Personnel that we were going to send a message to McCoy, and boy was it a glorious message.

A few hours later into the afternoon, the town was lively buzzing for the first time in ages, we had effectively sold everything we had on us from our food, spices, tools and equipment and even our custom made items in just a few short hours that were forced to restock our goods from our inventory pocket space.

"Hey! Terra Nova! Sell our goods too!"

"Please consign our stuff as well please!"

"Same here!"

"Hehehe! Welcome strangers and friends! To Terra Nova! Please Validate the goods quickly please" The Merchant greeted everybody in his natural business charm that attracted more people in despite his shady appearance. "Hehehe! Thank you, that'll be 48 Silver sterlings for the apples" he's checked the price for the fresh apples.

"48 Sterlings! Wow, that's a massive bargain! Way better than that shitty McCoy's" one customer was very pleased by his purchase.

"Look, this brigandine jacket is 1000 Sterlings and the quality is excellent too! Do you accept Gold pound coins?"

"Of course, we also provide change too. It also comes with it's own maintenance kit" The Merchant chuckled at the travelling sell sword's enthusiasm by showing off the tool kits.

"Seriously!? I'll take 4 of them! And these swords too!" He slapped down several coats of reinforced brigandine armour of superb quality as well as steel forged swords with included sharpening and maintenance tools along with the armours.

 ***Squeal!*** Everybody nearby heard a horrific fangirlish squeal when they witnessed a flamboyant stocky traveling Germanian spice merchant dancing on the spot as he discovered a complete collection of a spice rack filled with a whole manner of spices he's never heard or seen before. "Oh by Brimir's Balls! So many spices in one place! I never thought the north of Albion had any so I thought I was wasting my time! Gunther! Bring the gold, lots of it!" he shouted to his fellow colleague.

I didn't even need to do anything as The Merchant had it all handled. So I sat back with Misaki at the back watching the bustling miracle that happened right in the town centre where business had just returned to this town and it came bringing the hope back to the people.

"Boss-Sama, what you've done for these people… they will be forever indebted to you."Misaki praised me with her graceful smile, making me cough bashfully.

"Come on now, I didn't do much…" I countered but I was also in agreement to what she said, but still unsure as to how to really feel about this. It was quite difficult for a cynical pessimist such as me to go through such a drastic change. I never… truly helped anyone before on this scale. Holding the door for a person is nothing, climbing a tree to rescue a cat is a piece of piss, but saving a town from economic depression, poverty and starvation was on a whole other level compared to saving a few people that I could feel my Rep growing from this.

 **REP gained! +++**

 **Town of Hearth: Well-liked and respected - (+380/1000)**

 **McCoy Trading Company: Hated – (-405/1000)**

 **?: Abhorred, Despised, Envious, and Jealous – (-710/1000**

Oh cry me a fucking river, McCoy!

And who or what the fuck is that last one about!? What did I do to upset this… some person or place!?

Anyways, I completed the task in a month of me being here.

In profits, I wasn't exactly sure of how much we have made, but we may as well have made millions of profits in GMP from all this by now. We still had more to sell in my pocket dimension inventory linked to the warehouse back in home base, but I think that's that for today and we could pick this up again for tomorrow.

As for our total amount of GMP we were up to **4.8 million GMP (35,000 Albion Gold Pounds).**

The Merchant then decided that we should invest in several shops where we could exclusively sell our produce at and have them join our company instead, start up our own monopoly. The bakery was a good start, but I would also like a Butchers and maybe a shop for local groceries.

But before I could think any further my instincts were drawn towards a feeling of a potential threat nearby.

 **Killing intent detected!**

I looked across the street towards a church cautiously and I found and old middle aged man balding man who's already greyed all over was standing between the open doorways of a church building. The man was wearing an all-black outfit with a white collar, typically he was wearing a garb what Christian church preachers wear, but obviously different as he was clutching onto a Book entitled to Brimir's Teachings. The man had a scraggly face behind a pair of spectacles, his expression perpetually formed into an everlasting scornful scowl aimed mostly at me and to an extent, my friends.

'So, he must be Father Timms… What's he doing here, I wonder?' I mused to myself. The Father then marched straight up to me and spat out his series of rants in my face. "Who are you outsider!? Don't think I'll be fooled by your wicked deceiving ways, I know what you are, you deviant!" he spat out his words accusingly.

'The hell's his problem?' I thought to myself before shrugging and then heading back to the tavern, ignoring him. Until I felt his scraggily hand clutching onto my shoulder, digging his sharp fingernails into them to make me stop.

My head turned to glance at the hand and then glare right back at this preacher's scornful glare unflinchingly, despite the throbbing pain telling me otherwise… but I was growing quite sued to it nowadays. "What do you think you're doing?" I seethed at him for needlessly grabbing onto me like that.

"I should ask the same for you, heathen!" he pointed accusingly at me.

I could only snort at his baseless accusation, but I decided to humour him "Heathen? Whatever makes you think I am one?"

"Tempting the Founder's followers into the path of sin and temptation is a grave crime against the Founder's will, and you are playing on our suffering for your own monetary gain and your selfish greed! What is your purpose, you vile cur! Is this an attempt to bring discord amongst our people and our harmonious way of life serving under our lord founder's benevolence? Well I won't allow it!" The Preacher does like to hear the sound of his own voice.

I snorted at this man's pathetic attempts at riling me up. "Am I really? Well I do apologise for offending you, but I think you're mistaken about all this. You see, I'm not doing this for myself nor am I mocking anyone. I'm simply giving what everybody wants and needs in this town… and accusing me of self-profiteering, not only is it baseless and not true, as I've given plenty of opportunities for everybody to benefit around here, even in other areas outside of town to prosper.

Not that I expect you to see, for I have given more hope and support to these people in this town in just a few short hours… What've you done lately, Father?" I gave him a smile and simply left him at that.

The Preacher snarled hatefully at me and he further spat out more curses and preaching at me. "Your actions are in direct violations to the Founder's will! Repent! Repent and submit to the Founder's will! It is not too late!" He pointed at me with his preaching's making no sense to me.

I sniffed derisively at his empty baseless threats, clearly seeing through his lies and delusions. There was nothing wrong with what I was doing…he's just laying out nothing but empty threats at me and spouting out his fearmongering illusions amongst the populace who were listening in. I never liked religion, too much crazy for my liking and too much illogicality involved that It makes me uncomfortable and I rather stay out of it. I just rather they kept it to themselves rather than forcing it down our throats like what he's doing… but what he's trying to force upon me was just grating on my patience and nerves.

I then gave him a brief glare before answering. "Well why don't you try it?" I answered back at him, seemingly taking him back in surprise at my blunt answer and open hostility before gritting his teeth and slamming the doors to his church after he stormed back into his church.

I could only snort at his reaction. " _Pretentious prick_ " I muttered to myself and walked back towards the tavern.

Misaki gave a glare of her own back at the church over her shoulder before re-joining my side and whispered to me. "You know he's not going to take that lying down." She warned me.

"I know… " I could only sigh in response.

* * *

It was finally time for the tavern to be finished with its renovating. The Engineers/Workers had done a fantastic job in renovating the entire place. The whole tavern had been increased, thrice the size of the old dingy tavern of a single story, now it was three stories high and three times the size to fit in more people and rooms as well as a sizeable kitchen for hungry guests, an outside seating area and a deep cellar in storing our food and drinks.

Every room was soundproofed and was perfectly constructed in keeping the warmth inside of the room as well as it being well ventilated with windows. Beds were supremely comfortable, they may look plain but the feeling of it was like comfort fit for royalty.

The kitchen was very spacious, built to fit many staff members in the room and fitted with several ovens, sinks, countertops and cupboards for storage.

Inside the main area of the tavern was the bar and seating areas. The INN also functions as a restaurant for guests who were eating in. The bar itself was styled like a modern bar with drinks behind the bar as well as taps that were connected to casks and kegs.

Due to the short amount of time and the sudden transformation of the entire tavern left many people shocked and surprised with awe and amazement, yet they didn't overreact… a bit, as they have seen magic before. However, this did leave a bit of an impression on me as well as a small problem since the people started believing that I was a noble, a rather intimidating noble wrapped from head to torso and arms in white bandages, which did make me look like an interesting person to the many as well as being mysterious, according to the ladies. Much to my annoyance, I denied the rumours of me being a noble… many times, but convincing them that I was not a mage was… rather useless, so I gave up trying to convince them otherwise.

Angela, Jenny and even the Town Mayor as well as a few staff members from McCoy's company who came by themselves had visited after they heard of our grand opening and they wanted to see for themselves. Claire and a few ex members of staff of the old tavern whom were made redundant previously under the old owner of the place were in startling awe of the layout of the place as they couldn't believe what they were witnessing. For them to work in a place so clean and new was like a dream come true for them.

The Mayor's reason was to congratulate me for my successful first day as a new upcoming and popular company, but mostly it was to congratulate me in finally putting that arrogant Baron in his place. Technically, the sales permit the Baron had was illegally obtained from the Mayor's office… buuut~ the mayor was reasonable enough to overlook it and declare that he officially signed the documents for it, so it was perfectly legal in everyone's eyes, which mostly backfired onto McCoy's rising misfortunes.

"Welcome… to the Free Trade INN." I publicly announced much to the cheers of everyone as they found out that everybody was welcome inside, and the food and drinks were cheap and affordable, as well as it being absolutely tasty, delicious, refreshing and nourishing that they couldn't get enough of it.

"Pwah! This is… this Beer tastes so refreshing! Nothing like mead at all, but way better! And the best of it all, it's chilled!" Several travelling swords for hire gulped down their bottles of icy cooled bear.

"This meat! It's so tender! Succulent! Spicy! And… delicious!" a rather cubby travelling minor nobleman sitting in his own booth (He didn't mind the crowdedness and the noisy atmosphere full of commoners) chomped down on his slab of Rump steak served with roast potatoes and gravy as well as his glass of exquisite wine that was far fresher, and stronger than the noes he was used to.

Other customers were even being adventurous in trying out other menus from our foreign cuisine that they have ever seen or heard of, and they were delighted to say that they enjoyed it as they wolfed down their noodle based dishes such as Ramen and Udon noodles with their forks as I wasn't an evil bastard in providing them only chopsticks and leaving them to figure them out whilst they're hungry. As well as trying out several dishes of curry, which i… kind of regret doing, but they seem to rather enjoy it actually as they loved the flavour and the spiciness to it, although they may feel the after effects in the morning though.

Best of all, I provided them some of the food they were slightly familiar with such as European foods. Classic British foods or to their equivalent were included and vastly improved upon to which they appreciated, but the best of them all was my Italian dishes. Because I had given the task of cooking my dishes to my Construct cooks where they made stone baked pizzas that they were not only irresistibly delicious, they were Pizza Hut level delicious among other things that only proved to increase my INNs' rising popularity.

Everybody was welcomed and I never turned anybody away, if anybody had a problem with it, well that's their problem. The staff members were very friendly with most of them being locals such as the waitresses and some of the chefs while the rest were my own support personnel filling in the rest. If there were anyone daring enough to cause trouble among the guests and the customers who would deliberately cause trouble, they would immediately be sorted out by my very own security detail, or my very own personal Bouncers I have summoned for the building that mainly consisted of some rather tall and well-built and muscled men as well as some women who were not to be scoffed at either. Despite the fact there were only a few minor incidents… the evening was reasonably peaceful as the atmosphere inside the INN was very lively, but also in good spirits.

Perhaps the Merchant was right about this town, it does have it's charm and I just brought it back within a day. I was actually looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.

However, despite the good mood I was in… it eventually came to an end when Misaki tapped me on the shoulder and whispered into my ear.

 ***Bong! Bong!***

I could only frown and sigh dejectedly by the news she just informed me about, it seems that one of the big four has made their move by the sound of a bell tolling outside. The echoes of the bell was loud enough to dampen the spirits of the entire INN and there was now a cold sense of dread amongst my guests, some were hesitant to leave the INN, others made a dash for the door to flee as they recognised the specific tune that the bell played, it could only mean one thing.

The question that I was reluctant to answer and was left alone till now was finally going to get an answer from me tonight.

I shut my eyes and took one last sip of my drink before turning to my trusted aide "Misaki, send word out, it's time" I gave out her orders and she nodded and left my side to do her given task.

Now all I had to do…was wait and see who will make the first move.

* * *

A tall and burly captain dressed in a rather ornate black suit of armour was standing a fair distance away from the INN, observing it from a distance.

He was ordered to keep a close eye on this mysterious Terra Nova Company or Indus-something or other by Baron Nellis McCoy himself. He was notably livid about the losses of his income of up to 500,000 Gold Pounds, and up to thousands of his customers as well as his business partners in just a single day by an upstart company that was now gaining on them in terms of competition and popularity in the market. And there was worse news to come and was expected to come in the next following days.

He was present in his office of his own pristine company building built from the expense of the people's taxes and the Merchant's and trader's he has extorted and cheated out of in making it lavish as humanly possible, now it was tarnished mess from his one of his tantrums that happened again in the same day. He was present to see the wrathful anger in his face when he was informed about the news that he was rapidly losing profits more than gaining them. He wasn't happy that he had to stay put and deal with his petulant and obnoxious childish furious outburst and that golden goblet that he threw at his head.

Baron Nellis Mcoy, the fat portly blonde-haired minor nobleman dressed in some of the most expensive doublets, jewellery, breeches, and well-polished boots and a feathery hat had spluttered bits of his chicken in outrage the moment he read that letter reporting his sudden loss of profits. He couldn't fathom as to why a brand new company being led by what appears to be country bumpkins who lacked major accounting in their finances to have achieved such a level of profits in a single day and hadn't gone under the moment they dared to play in the big leagues and by cheating him out of a deal for the salt and sugar.

Nellis made the mistake in ignoring them the moment their foundation had been announced by the Mayor, but Nellis had been too distracted as he heard that he had somehow acquired an exquisite collection of spices that were quite rare to obtain as well as ones he has never seen or heard of before… he had to have it so he tasked one of his employees to personally buy the collection of spices and herbs for himself, but he soon found out that he lost that chance to a rather wealthy Germanian Spice trader. Horace wasn't sure why the noble business man didn't just extort them for it, or even better... order him to seize it. However, in his opinion, Nellis had been a fool to have paid that much and too much for a pitiful amount of sugar and salt. He even heard that they had this spice called Saffron that was said to be worth more than gold…Gold! Nonsense…

Nellis was so convinced that he could easily make that money back in a short while because of his company… boy was he in for a shock when the announcement came where he had been stabbed in the back by over 30 of his former business partners and traders under his contract and he had been unable to sell his products from his catalogue for a whole day.

And thus was the reason he was ordered by McCoy to spy on his new rival and was prowling about on the street where the grand opening of the newly renovated Free Trade INN was being held. Horace couldn't believe how quick those workers were, he just past the tavern this morning just after the old grouchy git, Gregory, had made a runner with a hefty sack of gold and left town for good. Not that he blamed him, who'd want to live in that shithole of a tavern anyway?

He was waiting with his loyal men for the ones he sent in to snoop around the place whilst the whole place was busy. Eventually, two men in commoner garbs were seen leaving the INN with sticks of meat in hand with some sort of sauce on them, clearly munching on them and enjoying it.

"You're late! What the hell took you so long!?" Horace chastised them with a harsh glare.

The two would be spies both gulped down their meat and looked about nervously. "Erm… were we supposed to look for something?" one of them said before his friend and colleague would've smacked his own forehead for his idiocy.

"Idiot! He meant our task in there that we were supposed to do!"

His response to his chastising partner was to blink and then swallow down his meal "Oh yeah…sorry about that, I was distracted by their food. Its sooo good~! You want some?" he offered to his fellow guardsmen.

"What are… those exactly?" the captain pointed at the assortment of meat, impaled by a pointy stick.

"The waitress called them… Shish Kebabs, it's got loads of meat on it to choose from like beef, chicken, pork and lamb and even fish, what makes it better is this… soy sauce I've got on it as well as this.. Chilli sauce, I think it's called? I don't know, they got loads of sauces I've never heard of." The guard said who was happily munching on his next bite.

Horace would've smacked the kebab stick away in his frustration and impatience with this fool, but his hungry stomach and curiosity convinced him otherwise and he eventually caved in and took the offered stick of meat and took a bite out of it.

"HRMPH!" he taste buds shocked him from the flavour and texture of the meat and the sauce, not to mention how spicy and hot it was that he nearly had to thump at his chest to stop him from choking.

"By Brimir's balls!… That's pretty good actually, not bad!" He admitted to himself as he took another bite out of it.

"See, told you its good." Jasper chuckled.

"Hmm~" Horace would have to admit that he has a point, but he came here for a job request, not indulging on the job. "So, did you find anything?" he asked of them both.

"Find what?" the guardsman asked, the question going right over his head as he was too far gone in his food.

"Anything we could use against this Terra Nova Company? Blackmail material, money caches and stuff"

"Oh, well…" he said rather sheepishly.

"Unfortunately, fat boy here was too focused on their food to have paid attention to the task he was given." his friend told the captain much to his ire. "However, I haven't forgotten, but unfortunately they've gotten the whole place pretty secured" he said, also feeling rather disappointed in himself.

"How secure?" Horace asked, curiously.

"Secure as in they've got the place teeming with these mean looking hired guards in black shirts, armoured breeches and black brigandine armour vests on and they're pretty well armed with a deadly looking knife and a metal stick club by their side as well as to what I suspect… a strange looking pistol. Some of them looked as big and muscly as you captain, they even had women among them that looked troublesome"

"Women?... Feh!" Horace would've snorted at that, being bested by a woman? Please… "Couldn't you have just snuck past them?""

His response was a negative shake of the head "I tried, on several occasions… many times I've tried sneaking upstairs to where their Boss's office would be at, but on those several occasions…" He began to shudder in slight fear and hesitance, "I don't know what came over me, but… I could've sworn they were watching me… like predators eyeing their prey from the corner of the room. I just daren't start anything with them… they look as If they could've simply killed me before I could take one step on those stairs leading up to the next floor." he said fearfully as he recollected the unnerving feeling of being watched with such an oppressive aura and cold killing intent washing over him.

Horace raised a sceptical eyebrow at his subordinate's fear and hesitancy, before he snorted at him. "Bah, why'd I trust this task on you two shit for brains." He ranted and then sighed. "Ah, sod it! I'll finish this myself. Now all I need is some false incriminating evidence and then…"

 ***Bong!...Bong!***

 **(Dunkirk OST by Hans Zimmer: The Mole)** I

A low gonging like sound of a bell being rung that echoed all over town coming from the church's tower, interrupting the captains thoughts.

"Ah crap… not this." One of Horace's subordinate's groaned and shuddered in discomfort at the meaning behind the church bell. He was even more discomforted as he witnessed a strange sight as many people had exited from several buildings and from out of alley ways. All of them looking rather, pale, sickly, downtrodden and anxious as they were slouching and dragging themselves to church like zombies. "Oh Brimir…I hate it when they do this, they seriously give me the creeps" The subordinates shuddered nervously as they observed their zombie like movements.

Horace couldn't help but agree with him, they were seriously creepy when they were like this. "There's a church procession at this time? Heh, seems old Father Timms is up to something again with his little lost sheep." He sneered at the horde of shuffling commoners. Blind Fools, the lot of them… They never even realised that Father Timms was just playing on their fears and desperation, and in turn he gets supporters who are put in line and controlled through his manipulative ways, and also earning the revenue of all of the donations he's kept towards himself from anyone dumb enough to donate their money to a conceited bastard like him. Really, who was Father Timms's fooling calling him a thief, the hypocrite.

"Do you think it's about the newcomers into town?" one of his men asked, raising a valid point. Timms had never called for an emergency procession for a long time. Horace knew Timms well, of how irrational and hateful that man can be.

"Without a doubt… You know how the old father is with outsiders, not after the last one that paid the price of his wrath." Horace then smirked, "Heh, seems I don't need to do anything after all. I think I'll leave it up to him this time." He said as he walked away from the Inn with Shish kebab in hand.

However, unbeknownst to him was a shadow of a figure gazing down on them directly above them on the roof tops, eavesdropping on them. The figure had heard everything and then disappeared back towards the INN.

* * *

In the large open room of the church, long aisles were packed and the atrium filled with the evening's procession suddenly called by Father Timms. When the bell has been rung, they must answer to pray at the church or answer the calls by their Father. For if they don't turn up?... It will be a great offence in the eyes of the Father and towards the Founder himself.

Father Timms was up on his altar, looking mightily enraged that late evening. He was there to address the latest… problem they were facing.

 **Terra Nova Industries.**

The name itself is self-explanatory on why they must be put down if they proclaim themselves as bringers of terror.

These outsiders were using his people for their own gains. They were manipulating them into turning against their masters, against Founder Brimir! He can just see it, the anarchy he will bring! Yet many people refuse to believe him. They have lost their way! And thus it was up to him to bring them back onto the path towards salvation.

But the worse crime of all that the burned demon had done was approach the love of his life, Linda. That foul depraved heretic dared to… seduce his love, yes, seduce her with his devilish charm, and steal her for himself. He tried to talk to her, he really tried to warn her about him… but she just won't talk to him, nor listen to his pleas.

It was all his fault! Everything was perfect before he appeared. Getting rid of one bad apple introduced another one that grew in its place, more rotten and foul than the other that infects the tree.

If nobody was going to stop them, it'll be up to him and his loyal followers with Brimir as their witness and guidance against the rising darkness in the horizon.

"My children, you are being deceived! The rot from the bad apple has returned with another one more worse and fouler than the last and has spread and festered upon us once again into our very town. These strangers… these outsiders come into our homes, tempting us all in betraying our founder and straying from the path of our destiny!" the preacher bellowed out his words with such passion, his followers listening in with hostile intent.

"Haven't we suffered enough!? First the wretched bard, that son of perdition showed up with the audacity of his foul wicked ways, his indecent singing and his appalling dancing, clearly mocking us all about our suffering! And worst of all… is his refusal to fear the Founder's wrath, and submit to his will and mercy! And yet… he didn't come alone, for there were his wicked followers who have followed in his footsteps! They claim they have come here bringing food and wealth, but do not be fooled by their treacherous lies! They do not care about you! They only care about what's in their pockets! Just like that selfish sack of greed that is Nellis McCoy and his lapdog!" The preacher threw out his claims, the blind followers were then starting to agree with him, all of them clenching their fists and gnarling their teeth together, growling like wild animals.

"They are all heathens! The lord and Founder Brimir is testing our will, testing our fortitude against sin and temptation, against our heathen enemy! Our Lord and Founder Brimir, wants us to destroy the rotten apples from our beloved tree! And with our swords in our hands we say to our lord… the Bad apples… . Cut out!" he roared out his declaration of war to his followers who also roared in agreement, with hundreds of fists in the air as the church hall echoed with the sound of primal rage and frenzy.

* * *

Everybody in the INN jumped in fright by the sound of the thunder. Their nerves were already shaken and disturbed, already fearing another purge by the church. Some even claimed that they herd them crying out like wild beasts just earlier.

Yet the guests noticed how odd their hosts were acting, especially the owner. He was just sitting at the back of the room, chair back against the wall. His posture leaning forwards towards the entrance… waiting and anticipating for something. His fingers were locked together, his right leg fidgeting and his eyes were shadowed by the lack of light in the corner of the room as one of the lights had fizzled out. His emotions in that moment unclear to everyone in the room.

"Master Crowshaw, what's happening?" Claire held a tray close to her chest nervously.

It was a long dreaded silence before I lifted his head up as a flash of lightening illuminated the entire room, showing the face of a man… his doubts withered away, his will burning like a furnace where it was being forged anew as he murmured out the answer, an answer that changed the fate of all of Halkeginia.

"War"

 **(Song end)**

* * *

 **Damn it!**

 **And i had so much more ideas to put down with Zac's experiences in Hearth, but i had to stop sometime.**

 **I adapted some ideas into this chapter if some people have noticed from some inspirational sources. The Trading company is from a manga/Novel "** **Super human high school students seem to survive with affordance in other worlds! (Get a better title, Jesus Christ!)**

 **The manga's not bad, if you're into the Isekai setting that are more gritty than this manga/novel may be for you. It's about seven super human teens that are the very best in their fields of expertise (Who to no real surprise are all Japanese. Come on, at least diversify their nationalities to make it more interesting and not biased. This scenario reminds me of Gate: JSDF's Japan bias in that show) in a fantasy world, one of them is a super human business man who in a week has nearly crippled a trading company who are also cheapskates and corrupted to the core.**

 **Father Timms was actually inspired from the Animation short film "The Back Water Gospel" who is the Preacher in that film.**

 **Now at this point, I'm stuck between what to do next in the next chapter. More Business or development... or action and war. Can't do both here, well only a little.**

 **Find out next chapter, whenever that will be...**

 **Also, leave a review or PM me for any ideas and suggestions you would like to see in terms of development or world building I could implement into the story.**

 **Cheers!**


	7. Chapter 7: Hearth Attack

**AN: Saulty's back...but not for long before he's busy again.**

 **AN: The reason why it took so long is because I've got a job now...(Boooo!) yes, i know... it sucks as many great fanfics have fallen victim to real life issues, mine included (I wouldn't say mine are the greatest, but thats up for debate).**

 **Don't expect too much off of me, as i'm not as enthusiastic with some of my other fics, especially the Naruto fics. I just can't put up with the generic business anymore as everybody knows that Naruto fanfics are the prime example of generic, unoriginal and easy gains for a comfortable start on Fanfiction.**

 **But that doesn't mean I've quit Fanfiction , oh no. if anything im wanting to try out something new, this fic included is one of the fics that i personally like doing.**

 **So this fic is a new update...not sure about it as i only have one beta as feedback and that is only one person with one opinion, so i'll wing it as i always do.**

 **Chapter 7: Hearth Attack**

Somewhere in the outskirts of Hearth, located in the south east was the Livingston Hall estate home for the Livingston family, although it was previously seized from the last family that used to own it and the town included. The entire place was a huge home complete with long hallways and many spacious rooms along with two wings on both sides of the central building where it was filled with many expensive personal treasures of the Livingston family as well as the seized personal treasures of the previous noble family that was filled with priceless paintings, artefacts, antiques, weapons and armour decorating the walls, the halls and each room. Its gardens spanned over eight acres of land that were filled with rare lavish plants, furniture, trees and architecture.

In the master bedroom of the estate home was the new lord of Hearth and heir to the Livingston family name, Christopher Patrick Livingston. The boy was just only 16 years old, but his temper and attitude was of a spoilt petulant child who always gets what he wants from his father. The boy was like his father in many ways, as it was his father who mostly raised him into what he is now. Nobody knew what had happened to the mother of the young noble boy, but there were suspicions that many people were too afraid to speak or mention out loud.

Physically, the boy resembles his father only that he has a mop of blonde hair and his body structure was of a short, plump, chubby and chunky, pale, gluttonous pig looking boy with a hairless body. The boy hated his fruit and vegetables as well as milk, but he loved meat, wine and especially sweets most of all to gorge down on. He hated being made to eat the devilish things that were broccoli, cabbage, potatoes and carrots (Blegh!). He vehemently refuses every time to eat anything that was grown in the shit and mud from some poor backwater village, or so he says, and that it was filthy commoner food so he refuses to even touch them. He especially hates it when people tell him no, which was one of the reasons why nobody ever mentions his mother around him.

Those that do remember his mother have recalled times that when he was a young child his temper tantrums were especially bad whenever he got punished by his mother. Some people would think that she was just being a strict and stern mother, but she was only doing her job as any other normal mother and that is to be fair and just while she raised him.

However, no spankings or chastising conversations with parent to child ever made him learn his lesson as his father was the one to blame by always coddling him too much. Christopher soon began to believe that it was his mother that was in the wrong and he eventually stopped and refused to listen to or care for her at all, always favouring his father's attention more. Until years later… the lady of the house suddenly disappeared one night during the civil war. Nobody knew what had happened to her, but there were mutters of rumours that sometimes during the night you could hear the sound of wailing, screaming and sobbing in the halls from a woman in anguish and suffering, there was even times where furious bloodcurdling cursing was heard echoing in the halls sometimes. Some people drew up reactions and conclusions that the manor house was haunted, but the servants and the guards never confirmed it and refused to comment on it any further. The fat oaf of the late Count Livingston himself simply chuckled and waved it off as nonsense, clearly not believing the stories and tall tales of supernatural nonsense.

Tonight was where the new lord of the manor would spend most of his time mourning for his father in his own way by indulging himself in many things like how his father used to… drinking, eating and whoring to at least ease the pain of his loss. But on that night, it didn't seem to be working when one of the wenches he had his men brought (Forced) to the manor to service his lustful desires had accidently… offended him.

" **You Stupid lying bitch!"** the roar was heard outside of the master bedroom until the whole manor house heard a horrific blood curdling scream and a sudden explosion.

The old head butler, Douglass Connolly, a minor disgraced noble now serving as a butler for the house under the last family that lived there but was forced into serving the family who now owns him, had come rushing into the room with the guards after they heard the scream. What he and the guards saw after they had come rushing into the room was the aftermath of one poor fate of an innocent maiden they had brought into the manor house to serve their lord had been brutally murdered by the late count's son. The poor girl had been scorched alive, her skin was nothing but charred black and the carpet and the walls were singed, smouldering and a smoking ruin. Luckily, nothing else had caught fire and set off a chain reaction in the master bedroom, at least the count's son knew some restraint of when to hold his destructive and violent tendencies to himself when it came to his home.

"Bloody hell, what happened here!?" The butler gaped in shock and horror over the brutal scene of a charred corpse of an innocent girl.

Christopher's nostrils were flaring in barely contained rage and his teeth cracking together as he seethed in outrage. "That… filthy whore dared to spout lies that my father was murdered by common bandits! It was the royalist sympathisers, I swear it was them! And she dared to pretend that she was a virgin!? She injured herself down there just to fake it! She dared to trick me, the son of Count Charles Henry Livingston! She should've been honoured that I was the one to deflower her, as should every virgin girl in Hearth and the region, those ungrateful swines!" Christopher screeched indignantly in his deluded madness. "This is an affront to my name and honour! I needed to teach that damn whore a lesson, and so I shall find her family and friends and teach them and every commoner filth a lesson to those who try to make a mockery of me!" He bellowed before he took in huge gulps of air before he calmed down a bit and the bulging veins in his temples receded back into his head before biting into his lower lip.

"Uuunnh!" the Livingston Heir soon bit hard into his own lips as the tears began to build up in his eyes, threatening to spill.

'Oh no…' Douglass mentally cursed to himself as he pursed his lips as he knew what was coming next.

The boy noble then started to wail like a child with a scraped knee, crying for his papa "Father... why'd you have to die!? I swear I will avenge you! You deserved an honourable death, not having your skull smashed in by barbarians!" The young boy heir wailed at his loss before his sorrow turned again as he hurled a fire ball at the guards that were standing by. One fortunately dodges, yet the other behind him had his right arm set alight before he desperately put it out.

"Fuck off! Leave me be! I bloody well told you don't come bothering me until my father's killers have been found!" he screamed at his personal guards and head butler before they scampered off hurriedly before his temper could get any worse. " _I'll go see if_ _ **she**_ _wants to play_ " the Butler heard the last thing he said before he escaped from the wretched room, his last demented words making him shudder and wince anxiously and regretfully.

The old Butler pinched his nose and swore to himself. 'That little shit's temper is getting worse by the day. I actually fear for the town's future if he remains in charge of the town…I am so sorry Lady Silverstone' He thought grimly as he worried for the town's future as he stood by a window and stared out to see flashes in the sky and the thunderous sound of rumbling in the horizon in the direction of the town.

'Hmm…A storm's coming… and it's going to be a big one.' he mused to himself until he noticed a strange red and orange light shining in the darkness in the direction of the town…or was coming from inside of the town itself. It was a brief flash, yet faint from where he was standing, although it was fairly difficult to make out what he saw as the town was covered in a blanket of darkness due to the storm.

Douglas may have been old, but a fool he was not and his eyesight had never let him down. Recalling from his years of experience as a captain in the Royal Albionion Navy captain, he had a suspicion that what he saw was a fire erupting from a large building…or an explosion?

"Sir Douglas!" a man dressed as a town guardsman had rushed forwards to meet him as he ran down the corridor, it looked as if he had been running for quite a while and was in a hurry. He could tell that he was meaning to find him what with the look of anxiousness and fear written on his face.

"What's wrong, lad?" he called over to the young guard

"It's hearth, sir…it's…"

"What?...what's going on down there?"

"It's been captured, sir! There's been a bloody warzone down there and we weren't even aware of it!"

"What!?" Douglass was gobsmacked at the impossibility behind the report. A whole town went silent and they were no even made aware of it even occurring? Ludicrous! Just what were those Town militia men doing?

"I…I don't know how, but… they came out of nowhere…out from the cover of the storm and the night, we never saw them coming!…" the young lad stammered nervously.

Douglas grabbed onto his shoulder to calm him down and demand for more answers "Who, lad? Who is invading us? Is it The Royalists?"

He shook his head "No…I… I don't think so, but I think they're … only just commoners"

"Commoners?" Douglas couldn't believe what he just heard but was soon cut off from a well-timed distraction as they were then interrupted when they both saw another strange light not so far out in the distance that was located a few leagues away in between them and the town. Douglas studied that light in the darkness and he realised that it came from a short distance away in the direction between the entrances of the southern town entrance and just outside the private land of the Livingston estate. It hovered in the air for a brief moment overhead as the light flickered for a while before it disappeared in the wind.

"Strange…" he murmured under his breathe until he got the shock of his life of what happened next. He briefly caught the Flashes that illuminated through the darkness of the night located a fair distance away from them and the town. He also caught the unmistakable sounds that rumbled through the ground and echoed all around in the area. It only took him a couple of seconds to realise what was going to happen as he heard the dreaded sounds of high pitched whistling and the streaks of white light hurtling through the sky that was rapidly closing in on their positon fast.

"Incoming! Enemy Artillery!" he could only yell out in warning by the time the first few rounds struck the manor house with such explosive force that sent him to the ground as well as the ornaments and parts of the ceiling. One artillery shell blasted through a window just five meters away from him, destroying parts of the wall and the ceiling with it and the shockwave, wind and rain rushing in through the building as it blew out all of the lights in the hallway and knocked every ornament, plant, painting and decoration off the walls.

His hearing had gone, the only thing he could briefly hear and see were the many guards picking his body up, shaking him to get an answer of what were they to do? The answer should've been obvious as he could hear the boy noble terrified screeching out orders left and right as he fled back into his room with a trail of piss dripping from his breeches leaving a trail behind him.

Then as his hearing recovered a bit, he could hear the scream of wounded men, one of them writhing on the floor in agony as he held onto what was left of his left arm that was bleeding all over the carpet. Not good, the lord of the manor will be most upset by that.

But the main and only question on his mind was… 'How did this happen?'

* * *

 **(Earlier)**

The two personnel that were tasked in assisting with the baker and her daughter could feel the shift in the atmosphere around the town just after the bells were tolled. It was just before closing time when they heard it, the cold sense of dread when they listened to the specific tune the bell played.

The sound of it haunted the mother and daughter to this very day. Stranger still was the sights of multiple civilians, all of them poor, downtrodden, sickly and starving were all seen marching like zombies towards the callings of the church.

The two constructs looked at each other and knew that something bad was going to happen when they saw Hannah clutching fearfully onto Linda's waist, even Linda herself briefly lost her tough woman act and was holding onto her daughter for dear life until she her jaw locked together in a snarl.

"What was the purpose of those bells? Why does it frighten you so much?" one of them asked

Linda glanced at the personnel and uttered out. "It's a calling for a purge… it means someone's going to die tonight. My husband and my sons died the same way" she said with her voice cold and filled with dread.

"Do you know who the target will be this time?"

Linda thought long and hard as she scowled. "Father Timms has tried to target my daughters many times with his preaches and threats before, but he always backs off when I confronted him about it. However, it's his followers that I'm afraid of, as Timms does not have absolute control over them as he thinks he does. If I were to guess who it'll be this time, it would be pretty obvious that it would be your leader and boss, Zachary Crowshaw"

They were soon interrupted by a knock on the door and the two personnel opened it to see that it was a hooded ranger with a Henry repeater rifle on his back carried by a sling.

"Boss called, says it's time." He nodded his head over his shoulder.

"And the Bakers?"

"Send them to the Trade, they're not safe here." The Ranger said before moving out.

"What's going on?" Hannah whimpered by her Mother's side.

"Grab your things, quickly! We're getting out of here!" The two assistants withdrew their revolvers and provided lookout for them as soon as they were ready to leave.

They soon escaped by the time they heard the war cries bellowing out inside the church. They escaped just in time before rouge elements of the mob scattered and torched the bakery to the ground, believing them to be inside. They weren't told to do this of course as the father's firm grip on his followers had slipped a bit, as they were following their own initiatives due to their corrupted and influenced minds that adhere to the Father's philosophy of the Bad Apples. The Father would've been outraged at the thought of his beloved Linda being hurt, if he found out about this.

* * *

Shortly after the church had been emptied of all attendants along with the preacher, Misaki's mission was now a go. She had to act quickly because every moment spent here looking for ways to help her Master stop the fighting before it could begin were drawing closer.

Her feelings behind these orders were causing a bit of a conflict within herself as she felt she should be by her master's side, not looking for evidence and proof to convict the Father in front of all of his followers. Her Master didn't want to shed any blood of the innocent, which is understandable in a way for an average 21st century Englishman from Planet Earth, but she can't promise him that it would go his way as in her view they were but rabid dogs that may need putting down for good, but it was not her call to make. If her Master believes that there is a way to quell the upcoming storm and frenzied masses, then she will follow his wishes to the end, but she'll have to hurry as they will reach the Free Trade at any moment now as soon as the mad preacher has finished arming his mob of mad rabid dogs.

Being a skilled intelligence officer she knew exactly how and where to search for crucial information in espionage missions. Checking the surface of the desk first is a start, as he may have left something important lying about? It turned out that he did leave something behind, which was a bit unorganised and careless of him as there were documents and reports of their suspiciously gained income from the past couple of months ago from these… generous donations, which was nothing much to go on, but they did look dubious for a simple church. The majority came from the pockets of the poor and the unfortunate, while the most gold they earned were from bribes and suspicious donations from Reconqusita.

She shuffled through more documents and discovered that he made a recent transaction from McCoy's trading company for the purchase of some… Whitechapel Holy Water ointments imported directly from Londonium's Arch cathedral of Albion? Hmm… apparently it's a recent concoction made by some of their priests or alchemists? it's purpose is to purify the soul of any faithful follower of Brimir and guide them to their true path where they will be rewarded by Brimir for their faithfulness… well that didn't explain much, but Misaki had a feeling that there was something more to this supposed Holy Water.

Fortunately, she did happen to notice a few of the crates with the logos of McCoy's trading company in the corner of the room. She managed to find a crowbar resting nearby on the window sill and pried the crates open to see several sealed glass bottles containing what seems to be a pristine clear liquid. She found a note inside the crate filled with bottles and straw inside, so she picked the note out of the crate and read it.

" **If the Glass breaks or the bottle is left open, do not breathe the fumes in."**

'Fumes?' Misaki raised an eyebrow at that and decided to cautiously unseal one of the bottles and take a quick small sniff of it. As expected she reeled her head back before crouching suddenly at the strong and powerful scent of the supposed holy water. Her eyes were watering but not by much, her vision went a bit cloudy before she forcefully regained her conciseness through sheer willpower and the perks of having a strong mental willpower granted by her Master.

She regained her consciousness and quickly resealed the bottle. "What the hell was that?" she muttered to herself.

There was no way that this holy water was any simple ointment. What she felt was something akin to a hallucinogenic narcotic drug. She didn't know what it was, but she will need to gather more evidence to support her claim that the Father was deliberately tampering with the church's supply of holy water and induced multiple victims into using the drug, whether he convinced them, deceived them or forced them into taking them it mattered not as his time in this world were already numbered.

She eventually found the solid evidence she was looking for in one of the locked drawers in the Father's desk. Not caring for subtlety as she just ripped the drawer out of the desk with brute force and inside the drawer was a thick red journal, The Father's Journal.

She picked up the red book and skim read through the whole contents of each page, the further on she went the wider her smirk grew. Each page was digging the proverbial grave deeper each time she found crimes linking towards Father Timms that proved his hypocrisy until she discovered what the Holy water's use actually was.

The shocking truth of the ingredients behind the so called Holy water were made illegally by a team of secret underground alchemists working for him where they were responsible for creating an addictive psychotropic narcotic drug mixed into the water itself that briefly induces hallucinatory flashbacks to a more pleasant past experience or visions of what they most desire in their hearts as the first stage effect. They called it Repentance. A drug that induces temporary behavioural abnormalities that is exhibited while under the influence of Repentance, and it is also useful as either a truth serum or an indoctrination tool. Once the drug wears off, the user is left unable to speak for some time and finally becoming an invalid for a brief time and then become mentally vulnerable for manipulation and indoctrination purposes for the Father to spread his influence into their minds, whispering false illusions of promises that were never real or honest about to begin with. The Father uses this illegal concoction to deceive people and rob them out of their money and of their hopes for the future. The effects were dangerous when in the wrong hands, as it warned that the side effects could include homicidal frenzies and violent, but sporadic berserker rage episodes if encouraged.

She had read enough of what she needed to return now before the war could begin, but not before collecting the evidence and leaving through the window of where she came from.

* * *

The streets lit up by another flash of lightening, the thunder boomed in the distance, yet the heavens refused to spill yet.

Father Timms had finished arming the mob of whatever weapons he could find from torches, hunting bows and crossbows, slings, clubs, farming tools, machetes, hatchets, knives, wooden planks with nails embedded in them and stones.

Hundreds have joined him on his march to war against the heretics that were Terra Nova. He will once again bring peace to the streets of Hearth after the last heretics had been forcefully removed after the Bard.

Yet, he still couldn't understand why the love of his life still clung on to the memory of that son of a whore. He still mocks him even in death, his essence still clings onto her no matter how much he tries to comfort her and make her love him, but she always rejects violently towards him and spitting curses at his face, until then she continues to mourn over the loss of her true love, her wails reminding him of his own failures…why he would never win her heart over The Bard. Two decades had passed since then and the reminders of his own bitter failure now roamed the streets of Hearth. The wretched spawns of the bard remains alive to this day, although he did get the satisfaction he desired when he personally dealt with the sons of the bard. And thus he succeeded in removing the bad apples of the Bard's so that his cursed line will not continue through their rotten seed. Yet the daughters were still alive, fit to breed more rotten apples into his own peaceful society he was trying to build.

He was all too eager having them removed and releasing the burdens of the curse from his Linda's shoulders, freeing her from the Bard's control and influence. Yet he never risked it, as Linda was always too cautious and highly protective of her daughters and she would always risk her life to protect them, to die for them. He needed to find a way in removing them away from Linda's reach for her own good, as he will never risk any harm towards her. His followers would always help him as it is always their purpose to serve him and follow Brimir's and Reconquista's will, but what he was unsure of and unaware about was that they all lacked discipline and would often act unpredictably and irrationally after being subjected to the side effects of the narcotic water.

But as soon as they were nearing the Free Trade INN by the west gate, the place he was informed of the whereabouts of the leader of Terra Nova, he wasn't informed or aware of the situation on their end as there was now a reinforced line formation of armed men and women in the street, all lined up together in a wall/ barrier of curved reinforced metallic shields held out towards them, with more personnel stacked behind them to provide support for the first line of defence.

Father Timms sneered at the audacity of these armed men and women under the command of this bully. However, he was unaware of the true numbers as after a brief flash of lightening illuminating the whole area was he truly aware of how surrounded and outgunned he really was. On the roof tops there were many more men and women looming down on them, Firearms in hand trained on them. The shield wall in front of them and the men and women behind them were all equally armed and armoured with several deadly looking weapons all aiming directly at them.

Their armour wasn't anything grand and they all lacked the majestic colours of a true army like Reconquista's glorious army colours with their decors and artistic patterns on their armours as well as the majestic Royal Army's own, but the armed group in front of them were all plain drab uniforms and armour that were made for the practical, professional, and efficient jobs in mind that is suited for one purpose in mind… war. The firearms in their hands were unfamiliar at first glance, nothing like any firearm he has ever seen in any of the kingdoms or Germania for instance. Their secondary weapons they had were all non-lethal weapons such as these clubs, but they were made in mid for disabling the attackers, not for killing… 'Were they trying to show mercy even when they are pointing firearms at us?' Father Timms mused in his mind, scoffing at the thought.

Father Timms came to realise that he may have bitten off more than he could chew, he was no military tactician, General or a soldier, he was but a devoted man to his religion who was now leading a commoner mob against an organised militaristic force. These were no mere caravan guards or mercenaries… he was in the presence of a true obstacle that was trained for this. Another thought lingered in his mind… 'Where are the Town's Guardsmen? They were supposed to be stationed at the west gate?' he wondered briefly before he snorted and blamed Horace for his subordinate's uselessness.

But he will not falter here now as he has come so far. To give up now would mean that he would be made a mockery of and a fool in front of everyone, to be seen as the man who was wrong in his teachings and branded as a failure and a coward in his role of guidance to the commoners. No, he will press on no matter what, nothing else mattered but freeing all of Hearth from the bad apples and freeing Linda from his grasp once and for all.

"Father Timms!"

'Oh, here comes an annoyance.' Father Timms sneered at hearing a familiar voice that came from the Town Mayor, Arthur Pritchard himself. The man was in his early sixties and had a neatly groomed short grey hair along with a short but tidy fringe. The man had a short portly but heavy build that was not seriously overweight. He wore brown breeches, a white button up shirt and a grey waist coat over along with black shoes. The Mayor was but a small rate minor noble, an insignificant waste of space who's always objected towards his noble and just actions, but he's never had the courage to stand up vocally to him until now.

"Just what is the meaning behind this madness!?" He called out in outrage as he stepped through the gap of the shield wall.

"What must be done, Sir Arthur Pritchard! Step aside now, or you will only get yourself involved in the way of divine justice!" Father Timm called out on the other end of the street, warning him of the consequences.

"What justice defines leading an unlawful purge on our town once again, haven't we suffered enough bloodshed!? The last one was disgusting enough! And let's not forget what Linda and her daughters have gone through because of you!" The mayor objected strongly.

"Watch it, Arthur! Watch your tongue!" The Father snarled, digging his nails into the spine of his book (Brimiric Bible or something) that he had brought with him. How dare he accuse him and his actions as disgusting, he should be grovelling on the ground and showing his gratitude and giving him the respect he deserves.

"I will not!" The Mayor shouted defiantly with a straight back that had taken Timms by surprise. He always considered The Mayor as a feeble coward. He never stood up to anyone like this before, he was always cowing down to his betters even straight after Reconqusita took control of the town and he never did a single thing to stop them, but now… something or someone has given him a spine.

"Y-you dare!?" Timms seethed in outrage.

"I do dare! I've had enough of you, Timms! No, we've all had enough of you and that bastard Horace, that greedy wanker McCoy and the fucking Livingstons! And yet you dare to accuse the very people who are helping us! Can't you see what they have done for us when Reconqusita hasn't even lifted a finger to help us!? Money has finally begun to flow into our town once again, food is now being brought onto our tables and to fill our bellies again that has brought back the spirit that our town has long forgotten that is now at long last being lifted back up again! **We** owe them our gratitude, **not** chasing them out of town with weapons against their backs! And you dare to take all that away from us!? No, Father Timms! Terra Nova are not the true villains here, you are!" He pointed an accusing finger straight at the Father.

There were shouts of approval coming from INN as the people who were once cowering in the INN began to voice their approval loudly and they all exited the inn and joined him from behind the line of Terra Nova's personnel. Even the people who were hiding in their homes had stepped forward to voice their objections, but they were all told sternly to get behind the shield wall or stay in their homes by several of the more important looking Personnel… 'Officers perhaps?' But the people were adamant in voicing out their outcries against to who they saw as the aggressors, so they all formed up behind the shield wall or yelled out their protests from their doorways and windows.

Father Timms had made a grave error of misjudgement as he never expected any resistance and thought that once everybody in the town heard the bells tolling, they would know better than to get in his way. Yet the people here were rising up against him in droves… their spirits were re-ignited like a raging inferno… all because of one man that they hailed as their hero and champion 'Why… why does this all look so… familiar?' Timms choked on his own breathe when he began to see visions of the same blasted man, and the way he used his foul cursed aura against the innocents to lure them away from him.

He looked around and witnessed the energy of the furious and passionate cries of the commoners that were beginning to make his followers falter in their places behind their leader, confusion and doubt were corroding against their poisoned senses. Timms realised that the effects of Repentance were beginning to wear away and the fury of the commoners were making them confused as to who was in the right. He must get his people's trust firmly into his hands and to convince the commoners in front of him that they were under Terra Nova's spell and that they must see the error of their ways

Timms rejected that statement vehemently in the best way he knows and tried, preaching. "NO! It is all of You who are wrong! It is you who are being deceived! That foul demon is using you for his own wicked agendas! Can't you see it!? You are being led astray form the true path of guidance Brimir has set down for us all! Only he can lead us on to the path of true salvation!"

"But not like this!" another voice called out as another figure slipped through the gaps of the shield wall. "Why would Brimir ever want this!? We were supposed to protect and provide guidance towards the common people, not enslave them by force!" a young woman who wore a form fitting white nun uniform stepped forward, tears threatening to spill.

"Sister Amelia…what are you doing on their side?" Father Timms growled at the betrayal.

"I've brought all the children from the orphanage here to be fed, safe and warm for the night… away from the church I once knew and loved that you've turned into a nest of sin and depravity, and away from your rotten clutches! I've spoken to the man, Zachary Crowshaw and he even reserved a table and rooms for all of us to stay at! He's not the monster you claim him to be, he's what this town needs!" The sister pleaded for the father to see reason.

However, The Father had lost all sense of reason long ago. His face was now clouded, but his eyes and expression morphed into an ugly snarl as he descended further into his wrath and madness. "No…No,no,no…You are wrong! All of you! You…Traitors! Ingrates! Heretics!… This town needs me!" he bellowed out his furious outcry of denial and was about to order for the attack when the man himself, the one he was here for revealed himself at long last.

"No Father, it never has needed you." The Burned Man turned up as he walked through the gap of the shield wall, ushering for the Mayor and the Sister to get back inside for their own safety.

" _ **You~**_ " The father hissed venomously.

"Me…" The Burned man, Zachary Crowshaw, remained impassive to his threatening gaze "What exactly is your problem with me being here, Father? For someone who is supposed to be the voice of guidance of your Founder you are setting a bad example for yourself and the faith itself if it follows a bunch of self-serving assholes with the way they are leading this town that you and the rest of this town will find itself further into ruin if you continue on this path of hatred and darkness you are all leading it into.

So stop deluding yourself, Father…You are truly not the hero you think you are, even if you like to be. If it was even true, then you would be helping us and the country fight against the tyranny of Reconquista that plagues this town, not encouraging mass slavery, purges and starvation of the innocent masses."

"You know nothing, Heretic! Reconquista are what this country needs, what Halkeginia Needs!" Father Timms objected strongly to his accusation in favour of his masters and sponsors.

"So you say…" He tilted his head in scepticism. "But I've discovered some pretty interesting things about you that will… contradict your statements." He then retrieved a red journal from out of his coat pocket, His Journal.

"Y-you Thief! Where did you get that book!?" Timms recoiled in horror as he discovered that his enemy had somehow acquired his secret Journal.

"You really should keep your thoughts to yourself, Father Timms… You're only condemning yourself to the deepest pits of hell what with all of your skeletons that infest inside of your cupboard for everybody to see once they eventually discover it, which by itself wasn't that difficult to find, according to a dear friend of mine." The Burned man gave off a glint in his eye that taunted him.

"You wouldn't dare!" The Father gritted his teeth together. His followers were confused on why he was panicking.

"I wouldn't? Guess again." He raised a brow before scoffing as he shrugged in response.

"He's right, Father Timms! Come clean with yourself already! We're all aware of your atrocities you've committed in this town, against all of us!" The Mayor called out behind the shield wall.

"You told them!?" The preacher glared at the leader of Terra nova in horror and hatred, his reputation and standing with the faith ruined and tarnished now that his secrets were out of the bag in plain sight. It won't be long until all of Albion and then all of the Brimiric nations of Halkeginia knew of his atrocities.

The leader of Terra Nova only gave off an indifferent shrug "Quite a lot of people have turned up here for the opening of the new INN by the west gate, everybody here knows each other quite well and I suspect that news gets around quite quickly in these parts… I wonder how Linda will react to this when she gets here, how will she think of you now that you've intended to poison the minds and get them doped up on some concoction that turns them into some kind of mindless zombies, and especially with what really happened to Jack..." he drawled on, tauntingly.

" **Don't**!... Mention his name!" the preacher briefly slipped into madness when the mention of the one name he absolutely despised.

Zachary looked at him as if he didn't get what the offense was "Why not? Wasn't he your best friend at one point, before that one war that happened two and a half decades ago?"

"I was never…Never!... Friends with that heretic!" he objected strongly.

Zachary only shook his head and waved the journal in the air just above his head "The journal here says otherwise, this thing doesn't lie since you were the one who wrote it. It clearly says here on this page that you were but inseparable brothers at one point where he saved you from a pirate raid on a merchant ship that you were on board of at the time. Cost him a leg for your life where he had to save your miserable and ungrateful arse. And then how do you repay him? By Spending 20 long years wallowing in your own selfish pit of envy, loathing and hatred for the man who saved your life and then siccing your corrupted followers on him, tearing apart a loyal and loving husband and father to his wife and children , all because he was a better man than you and that the woman you had your eyes on first… didn't love you… who will never love you." Zachary ruthlessly said it with intent, to drive his point further in.

" _Shut up_ …. **Shut up!"** The Father roared in denial.

"Oh, but that's not all… How could Linda ever love a man like you? You, who are but a crook wearing the clothes of a so called Holyman? Devoted to his faith? Please…" he pointed an accusing finger at the Father and then turned to address his followers before snorting in disgust for the man.

"This man is not who you believe him to be! He is a liar, a fraud, a deceiver, a thief and a criminal! No matter the things he may have told you about me, I guarantee you all that he has done worse to all of you! And you shall see the evidence to his crimes he has brought upon all and everyone in this town" he said, bringing his hand up and waving his finger towards one of his subordinates who passed him a satchel bag and he fished out one of the contents, a circular bottle filled with a clear liquid.

"This… this is the instrument to your slavery and the control he has over you all! This is what keeps you weak and blind to his lies!" he showed them the evidence of the tool that has enslaved the downtrodden. "Enslaving you all, indoctrinating you all to fulfil an impossible purpose that has nothing to do with commoners in mind. The Founders blessings he spoke of to you all were really intended for and favours the mages most of all in the end instead of the normal magicless commoners such as yourselves.

Open your eyes people! This man never promised anything to you, but to keep you all under the boots of Reconquista like the speck of dirt in the ground they all see you as! That is what we all mean to him and them! You owe him nor them a damn fucking thing because they certainly don't give a shit about any of you!" he pointed to every one of them, his words making a heavy impact on everybody listening.

The Father's followers were shaken, their minds in conflict with themselves. Some were fighting the temptation after hearing the truth behind the Father's treachery, but some were losing themselves to their needs for the water themselves, their minds telling them that they needed to be purified, to be loyal, to stay loyal to their faith.

The Leader of Terra held out his arms "But we do! I can see it in your eyes! You're desperate for more of this thing here in my hand, but you are trying so hard to fight it! Let me ask you all a question… what is more important to you all? Is it your addiction, views and devotion to a traditionalist faith that gives you nothing and sees you as nothing but blind dumb sheep? Or your family's and loved one's health, safety and survival for a brighter future?" The burned man asked them, to which they all lowered their weapons in befuddlement, So Zachary pressed the matter on further to dig the point deeper within their minds.

"The Father here wants to believe that we're evil. He's convinced himself that we are… sub-human, somehow making us out to be the villains in this story because of the changes, the food, money and the hope we have brought back with our quick and decisive actions into this town in just a day, whereas Reconquista and Father Timms had failed to do so ever since this civil war began. Where they promised and preached constantly to you all but ultimately failed in keeping their promises and oaths that they do not intend to keep and are incapable of upholding it because they do not care to try and help any of you but themselves.

We did not do this for our own greed as much as he proclaims, but because we must do this! We are not the selfish people with ulterior motives here, we have our own village that we must provide for and protect by ourselves too. You're not the only ones who are having it rough, but we will be the ones who'll try and make a damn good difference around here!" he finished before he reached into his satchel bag and picked out a fresh loaf of bread baguette and held it high in his right hand with the concoction in his left.

"So here's how it's going to be… I'm going to give you all a choice to choose from. In my left hand will be your loyalties and faith to your Father and Reconquista, the life that has given you nothing but lies, misfortune, endless pain and suffering. In my right will be an opportunity to be a part of something new where you will be the first in line to witness it's fruition and we will be the ones to fulfil our promises to the people. And I promise you this... this town, Hearth, shall survive the coming winter and the hardships and desperate times ahead!" He said holding in his right hand a fresh slice of a bread baguette with a spread of mayonnaise smothering the fluffy white side of the bread. "Choose now!" he ordered them to make their choices known.

The followers equally made noises of their hunger being apparent, they all held their stomachs and groaned weakly. They were almost tempted to accept the food offer, but… their repentance demands… no matter how tasty that bread looked with it's fresh toasty outer crust layer and the fluffy white texture within, not to mention that sauce he just put on the bread… they all wondered what that sauce was… was it delicious?

"Lily!?" Out of all of their curiosity, only one person… a starving little girl had willingly stepped out of the crowd of followers and approached the burned man, much to girl's father's horror and Timm's furious anger when the father of the said child who stepped out of line towards the offer the burned man was providing for them, and she was favouring the object in his right hand most of all.

"My Child! Stop what you are doing this instant and get back with your fellow brothers and sisters, now!" he demanded for the child to return back to her place along with the rest, a six year old starving girl who at first glance seemed like she was little more than a street urchin stumbled in her steps and shivered in her place in fear, but looked up towards the man with the dark clothing and the bandages covering the whole of his head.

He did look scary, but his eyes only showed kindness, warmth and concern for her…

"Mister… is there…enough for everyone?" she meekly asked the Burned man.

"There's enough to feed the whole town here." The burned man nodded with an eye smile as she crouched down and held his right arm outwards, offering her the bread. "Try it… oh, and the layer of sauce is called Mayonnaise. We invented it back in our village." he said, although he discreetly made a cough under his breathe.

"Child, if you dare accept his offer…?" the Father seethed out his warning of the consequences to her, but the child was now oblivious to the warnings as she accepted the bread offering and slowly took a bite of the bread. Her lifeless eyes soon lit up with reinvigorated life. Her eyes lit up like stars sparkling in the night sky, before a torrent of tears began pouring out and her lips beginning to tremble.

The burned man flinched in panic as he was face to face with the dilemma of a crying child. "Ah, crap! Was it bad!? It is, isn't it!? I knew I probably should've gone for the sweets…NO, _that's doubly bad, worse even with how the way it would look!_ " he panicked as he started chastising himself comically under his breath.

"Mm-mm~!" But the girl only shook her head and blubbered out her response with her mouth full. "Ith Tastshss Sho Goood~!" she said with her mouth full as she wolfed down the bread to the point where her cheeks puffed up like a certain fish before swallowing.

The burned man smiled in relief before patting her on the head. "Slow down there, you're eating too fast." He said before providing a canteen of water before she accepted the water wholeheartedly with massive greedy gulps.

She let out a satisfied exhale after having her fill, and then she did a tiny burp of satisfaction before she covered her mouth.

"Sowwy~" she lowwered her head down apologetically.

The Burned man, the leader of Terra Nova, Zachary Crowshaw could only chuckle out humorlessly at this little girl's innocence and politeness. "Where I'm from, in certain places it is considered good manners, meaning that you were satisfied with the meal." He explained, although he wasn't being serious about it as it was technically true in some certain areas.

"Really?" she adorably tilted her head with a finger pressed to her lip in thought as Zachary could only chuckle silently to himself for his odd piece of knowledge he just shared with to an impressionable child.

He looked over to the crowd of followers and he could see that the effect of the child choosing the bread over the holy water had caused a domino effect on the followers as the reaction of said child cause them all to crave for the bread more than their addiction and faith to their Father and the Church. Their arms lowered and their weapons clattered on the ground, the situation had been diffused.

Zachary could only breathe a sigh in relief as he had successfully disarmed the whole entire situation. 'Perhaps it might not come to action sooner than I thought?' Zac thought with optimism and hope lingering in his mind, but it was not to be for much longer.

 ***!DANGER!***

 ***KILLING INTENT DETECTED!***

Zachary's instincts kicked in the moment he just noticed in the corner of his vision towards the followers that the Father in an act of stupidity, madness and callousness he drew out his wand secretly hidden within the spine of his book and drew it upon him. His words were quick and precise, it wasn't a big spell, hence why the chants were shortened, but just a quick and accurate spell to take out his intended target.

" **Firebolt!** " he roared out as a fire arrow shot out of the tip of his wand with speed and precision and power in mind, his target was unclear as one of his personnel who had a clear shot at the Father took the initiative to at least put a stop to his actions before he could land a killing blow. He fired his Sharps rifle, but the Father had fortunate dumb luck on his side as he conveniently moved his book closer to his heart and the thick book took most of the force of the round and exited out of the book where it just skimmed through the flesh of his shoulder where his stance had been knocked off and his accuracy was thrown right off course.

But Zachary didn't care to find out where the spell will land as he selflessly grabbed onto the child and shielded her from harm, moving her away from the brunt of the flames as his back faced the flames.

"Boss!" "Zachary-Sama!" All of his personnel cried out in horror for their leader until the fire spell struck the ground just a few metres away from them that lit up in an explosive fireball that rose up in the sky and sending bits of dirt and cobblestone pavement in the air.

After the flames and the smoke died down, the aftermath that Father Timms had hoped for was not what he wanted. The smoking charred remains and bits of limbs were still intact, only barely protected by his loyal subjects who rushed to his aid with tall shields now melted and burning from the heat, but the impact caused it to fall apart and the soldier with it, now unconscious from the force of the impact and badly burnt from the heat of the fire spell.

Behind him was their Leader who was on the ground, his body still shielding the girl who was mostly unharmed by the attack. He had taken the full brunt of the blast and had mostly came out of it unharmed, but the same can't be said for his left shoulder and the left side of his face that had been caught in the blast and had partially burnt them both of as the fire had melted through the coat that only left a tattered sleeve still smouldering from the heat. His bandaged face half burnt off where the remains of his bandages were torn apart and hung loosely whilst they also slowly burned away, revealing a glimpse of his scarred and burnt wounds upon his face.

"Tch!...Grrgh!" The Father spat out a mouth full of blood, but he knew he had him right where he wanted him. Whilst he was crawling in the dirt on his knees, he now had a chance at finishing off this blight for good. He was charging up his Foci with another attack until he felt the focus of his wand being cut off, literally.

He looked down and he saw that an arm with a black sleeve had landed by his feet, the blood staining his polished leather shoes… wait… arm? He looked the at his wand arm and to his horror he discovered that arm was but a bloody stump right up to his elbow had been severed by a machete from one of his followers, the father of said girl who defied him.

"M-my arm?… MY ARM!" he cried out in agony and shock he fell to his knees in agony, clutching the bloody stump.

He tried to muster up a glare of bloody daggers at the traitor who cut off his arm, but the words that came out of his mouth only ended with a whimper. "You traitor! You dare.. to defy… me… your… prophet to our Founder!?" he whimpered pathetically.

The father was in shock with what he had done as he stared long and hard at his machete, his fellow brother and sisters in arms were in the same position as they also were greatly surprised by his sudden action. It was only when he heard the difference in tone of the Father did he come to realise who this man really was. "You were… to… hurt my little girl… she's all I have left…" the father had the look of shock and then his eyes soon morphed into parental rage and anger. "You…You... We followed you… we believed in you for all this time… and for what!?" His eyes were soon pouring out tears of anguish and rising anger. "How could you!? We trusted you and you led us to kill our friends and family… it was you… you're the one who we should've stopped from the start… we… oh no… what have we done? After all this time, what've we been doing!?" the parent of the girl stumbled as his mind was in conflict with itself.

The Father could only look around in rising fear as he began to notice how the tables had begun to turn on him. His supporters loyalty soon begun to morph into anger and hatred for the man as their eyes were soon gone from the tainted disillusion that had been forced upon them "No…Nooo…It's not me…It's them… Terra Nova…It's their fault… they're the ones who you should be… angry at…not me" the Father whimpered as tears welled up in his eyes and his face pale from the agony he felt in his arm, his expression now morphed into fear and anxiousness as his followers all began to surround him, weapons back in hand. Their faces shadowed off their expressions, but their intent was very clear.

He lifted himself off the ground as he made attempted a mad dash in an attempt to escape.

 ***Bang!***

He felt his left knee cap exploding in pain as he felt it explode in a shower of gore and bone fragments, but he could only trip and land face first onto the cobblestone ground as it muffled his screams of agony, right by the feet of a man with smoking Peacekeeper revolver in hand whose hatred he could feel scathing into his skin from his glare alone.

He didn't dare look up, but as soon as he did… he could feel the thunder in the skies breaking into his heart as he looked into the piercing steel gaze of the burned man as the light from the flashes of lightening reflected off of the surface of his eyes.

The lightning exploded from out of the clouds once again… and then at last did the first few drops of rain landed on the frame of his glasses as the storm released the downpour onto the earth below.

The rain dampened the smouldering bandaged arm and coat sleeve as Zachary Crowshaw just ignored the rain and the burning pains altogether. His thumb fiddling with the cylinder of his Colt SAA Peacekeeper, admiring it's build and design, respecting it's built up legendary status over the years. "So… this is your answer?" The Burned man spoke, his glare ever hostile as he crouched down to him, eyes now slightly levelled with each other, boring into him like hot iron. "I brought bread… food for the starving masses, to help them, to stop this madness from happening as there was no need for bloodshed here. You could've just walked away, you should've done just that… but you won't, you couldn't… your pride and your loyalties reject our charities and our kindness because your so called faith and vanity won't let you as they demanded retribution, and how did you respond to my offering?... By mercilessly aiming in an attempt to kill me while an innocent child was in the crossfire. And you called me the monster." He shook his head in disgust for the man before he continued.

"Your hatred for me is noted, but I can't understand your reasoning as to why you would go to such lengths in your quest of hatred that you would kill anybody that would object against or even question your beliefs, to react so violently when you strongly believe that you are right. The same can be said of the reasons where the religious mages and clergymen like Reconquista and the Church who devout their lives in simply placing your Founder on a pedestal of godhood and follow his example thousands of years ago where even they don't even fully understand their Founder's mentality and reasoning behind his actions. Why your society would deify a powerful void mage, the first of his kind as a religious symbol akin to a god when he was really but a mortal man who died 6000 years ago is beyond me. The ideology by itself is something I find… unfathomable. You pray to him every day, for blessings, for fortune, for honour and glory… but the dead can't hear you, nor can they respond to you.

But happy are they to follow the will of their Founder and finish his work and ambition he sought out to do against the Elves, but why go to such lengths for something written on paper without hard concrete evidence that supports this? Because the Holy lands beyond the Sahara in natural belief to the most devoted of followers where they adamantly believe the Holy Lands belong to the Founder and his blessed people? It is a place where it is a natural temple and monument to his glory? Who's to say that's his real home? Was his actions truly just when your Lord and Founder entered the Holy lands he perceived as his home, where that he later found that in his eyes it was polluted by a different race that already inhabited it, an Elven race where they are viewed as nothing but arrogant and evil demons hell bent on destroying mankind as per what your religious texts describe the Elves are?

What were his actions then? Did he ask them to leave because he didn't like them? Did he cry when they rejected him? Did he simply walk away, to leave them be and move on with his life?

No…He attempted to drive them out with powerful magic he obtained from who knows where that was so powerful that he left thousands massacred in cold blood for reasons unknown to many… It could've been fear, could've been jealousy, could've been hatred or it could've been a just cause… we'll never know.

Reconquista may have the same idea in common, uniting the land of all humans under one banner and declaring an all-out holy war against the Elves, yet how can they truly unite all of humanity when you and the rest of Reconquista are turning everyone against their own and subjugating the weak and powerless under your thumbs like tyrants.

Brimir also stated in his will that the Mages are supposed to be the protectors, not the betters… I don't really understand as to why anyone would promote that particular ideal that the common people should stay quiet and follow their masters and their betters obediently like loyal slaves where they are their own free people, they should lead their lives as they see fit.

We should thank you for this. For your gross misconduct has almost costed the people their homes and their lives by your treacherous actions that has costed you today and has led you here, betraying yourself and have betrayed the people of Hearth, but at this very moment it has given us a renewed sense of purpose and a finely tempered resolve in the fires of adversity. Our will is forged anew." He said when he began circling around the Preacher.

"I now understand why I am here, why should I have been afraid of this very moment when I knew it was coming." He said when he lowered his head and looked directly at him square in the eyes. "You wanted war, Father? Then you've got a fucking war coming for you, all of you …and it will be more than what you've bargained for" Zachary smiled with a malicious grin behind scorched bandages that was partially visible as spoke down to him as he continued examining his Revolver.

"Blasphemy… you're a madman… you would… declare war on us all!? On your betters? We started this for the best intentions for us all and we deserve our res-"

 ***Bang!***

"Arrrgh!" the mad preacher cried out as an unamused Zacchary shot his other kneecap.

Zachary only looked at him blankly, unimpressed by his statement "Oh, I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to break your concentration, but please… if you would continue? You were currently on something about… good intentions for all?"

"W-what" he stammered.

"What are Reconquista's Intentions for this country?"

"Wh-what I…?" The father stammered further as his face was trembling from the pain of having a bullet shot through both of his kneecaps

"You were speaking of good intentions for us all, right!? What, are you going to speak for the rights of everyman!?… Or perhaps I should say, of one man? Who is this person, Father? And why is this person more important than the rest? Why should the needs and these good intentions go towards the privileged and blessed few rather than the many?"

"The… Founder… wills it…" he managed to breathe out, his words losing strength behind them.

Zachary could only snort derisively as he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So that's your answer for everything? You just simply sweep aside the matter and cannot answer honestly for yourself and then say everything is run on the will of a six thousand year old dead man… You say you're a follower of the foundation for years, Father? You read that book a lot?" Zachary pointed to his shredded version of the bible that one of his Personnel had shot a huge round into.

He nodded shakily with sweat and rain pouring down into his brows, fear gripping him as he was too afraid to speak as he noticed more of his Personnel coming to the sides of their leader. Their gazes were cold, ruthless and malicious… a terrifying sight he had ever seen on a human being, if he could call them that.

"Well… I have this passage that I know from this book similar to yours and I wanted to share with you that you won't find in your book here. It goes something a little like this…" he said before clearing his throat "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Bless it is he who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger of those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers and sisters." He circled around the Father as more and more Personnel were beginning to surround the Father, firearms in hand and Zachary turned to face his front with his revolver in hand now pointing at him. He listened to the passage intently, it sounded almost like something he would read out of a passage in his book, but he knew that there was no such passage in the book even though it sounded like it was.

"And you will know my name is the lord, when I lay my vengeance upon thee!"

"NOOO!" The Father tried to protect himself when he tried to make a dive for his wand, only to get struck down by a barrage of bullets coming in from multiple directions from in front of him and on the rooftops. He was shot at least over 30 times where the final bullet struck might between the eyes that launched him on his back and into a muddy puddle of water that built up from the rain, turning it into a shallow pool of red.

At that moment, everybody witnessed the justice that Zachary Crowshaw enacted that night. The rain suddenly got heavier and the storm grew louder when the body of the Father crashed down into the ground. What everybody didn't realise was that as this was happening, they were unaware that they just witnessed a declaration of war in the making.

The smouldering patches that were slowly burning away his bandages and his shoulder sleeve of his coat were eventually being extinguished but left a smoking trail from the burned materials.

His eyes looked up at the group of Followers, eyes cold and sharp as steel, burning with silent fury and intent. He observed closely on all of them, watching them… waiting for any signs of movement. The indoctrinated and controlled victims of the Father may have been freed, but he knew that there will still be a lingering influence from the Father that will fester within their minds if it's not dealt with ASAP.

The effects from the Repentance may have worn off, but he knew that it will not be easy as one man within the crowd was becoming jittery. It had been several hours since he last took his Repentance, but in his mind he was trying to fight it as his hunger instincts and his needs to be fed were trying to win over his desire for the concoction.

Dark whispers were being murmured inside his head, the Father was most disappointed in him… Brimir was disappointed… you must Repent… **Repent!...** **Repent!** …. **Repent!** .. **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!** **Repent!...** **Strike down the non-believers!… Execute the heretics!… Purge the demons!… Kill the Burned man! Repent and serve!**

His hand gripped tightly on his hatchet… and in his head he eventually slipped from his control and he then obeyed the will of the Father and to an extent the Founder.

"Yes…Father" he muttered, barely heard by one of his less affected Brothers who turned to face him. He was too late to notice that his control had slipped and was then grabbed by his shoulder as a hatchet had been raised…

"Stop him!" The Burned man tried to stop him but it was too late as he swung the hatchet down to meet the neck of it's victim.

 ***Bang!***

A gunshot echoed throughout the street as Misaki had discharged a round into the head of the hatchet, forcing the brainwashed follower to drop the weapon. Two personnel then tackled him to the ground and restrained him. The Poor man was thrashing about, spitting out incoherent phrases and verses, mutterings of apologies and begging for forgiveness towards the Father and the Founder.

Zachary observed the man closely and intently, watching this man suffer from some sort of after effect or an effect from withdrawal. Stray from the path, and the voices will be louder until you obey.

"Zachary-Sama" Misaki addressed him. "The man's unstable, he's lost it. We've eliminated the source of their indoctrination, but not from the source of their influence. Every follower is cursed by it, and It will not be long before they will all lash out. They wouldn't even be themselves if they turned. What should we do with them, Boss? "Misaki eyed all of the followers wearily with a steady finger on the trigger, waiting for any signs of hostile aggression.

Zachary then turned his gaze from Misaki and then towards the Followers who were rooted in the spot from their fear. They were afraid that they will be executed for their involvements with the father and for the actions of the man who had almost murdered one of their own.

Zachary knew that all of them were suffering from the after effects of the influence that the Father had on all of them, but he couldn't in his heart just execute them in cold blood. Zachary shook his head in response.

"No, I won't kill them... They can be helped. We will help them recover from this. Besides, I promised to feed them, didn't I?" he said with honest intentions and a disarming smile on his face that alleviated them of their fears with relief.

"However, I'm afraid that we must keep you all restrained and quarantined away from everybody else. The effects of his influence are still present in your minds. Help will be coming soon and you will get treatment from our best doctors." He announced to them all as the previous loyal followers of Father Timms were filled with something that they hadn't felt in a long time… hope and gratitude.

They were then escorted inside of the tavern under heavy guard and watch as they were seated at tables where they will be cuffed and rooted to the tables and chairs while they were fed with warm nutritious meals and water as several guards of the Inn will provide surveillance over each and every one of them. The effects of their Repentance had lost a significant hold on their minds, but pockets of remnants still remained and lingered within their minds.

As soon as they were all seated, Zachary left them all to it as they were starting to break down crying, they had long forgotten the last time they were properly fed, the only time where food and water tasted as if it was like it were made for nobility and royalty in mind, they didn't even feel as if they were worthy in eating the food that was given to them, but their kind and generous hosts insisted that they eat up.

Zachary left the INN with his entourage following close by as the storm was refusing to let up outside. The people soon left in a hurry to get home, a warning for them as they soon realised the events that were to come. they realised that their saviours were soon to become their conquerors.

"Boss, you're hurt…" Misaki spoke up in concern as his face and arts of his shoulder was revealed. The sleeve of his left shoulder and arm was in tatters, and the intricate wrappings of his bandages were left draping against his shoulder fluttering against the wind as well as being soaked in the pouring rain.

Zachary however ignored it all "I'm fine… there's nothing that hasn't been burnt already."

"We need to tend to your wounds straight away!" Misaki objected

"No!...We continue on with the plan! We finish the fight that they have started, tonight!" Zachary turned around to face Misaki with a stern, but furious and commanding glare that had silenced Misaki in her spot and made her shudder within herself at such a commanding presence… she felt herself get quite worked up by it.

"Have they arrived yet?"

"They've received our message a while ago, they will be arriving at the west gate and north gate shortly. We sent a team to dispatch the guards at the north gate so they can pass on without interference."

Zachary nodded in acknowledgement. "Good… listen up, here's what we will do…"

* * *

The Guards over at the North Gate were having a miserable shift, they were all huddled up together under the gate's archway for some shelter, a makeshift fire being set up to keep them warm and were struggling to keep the fire alive due to the heavy rain and wind.

"Fuck! It's gone out again, the woods too damp!" a guard cursed as the fire died out.

"Bah!... Told you to place it in a better spot than here, now the rain's ruined it because of the wind that's blowing right through 'ere"

"Ahh, shut it ya Prick!"

"The fuck are we doing out here anyway? It's not like anybody's gonna come into town in this storm?" one of the guardsmen complained gruffly.

"Orders are orders, newbie. We were told to stand here and look pretty and to monitor any traffic coming into town as well as to collect the taxes from incoming merchants that wish to trade here. We also need to be keeping an eye out for intruders, especially spies. Besides, I bet that the hunting party out there is having a tougher time than we are." The guard snorted as he just laughed unsympathetically to himself.

"Who exactly are they trying to look for?"

"You haven't heard? The Count was murdered yesterday, there's a whole manhunt going on around the Livingston owned lands in an attempt to find the perpetrators who murdered him and his party. It was meant to be kept quiet but it really wasn't that much of a well-kept secret amongst the guards."

"Shit… really?"

"Yeah, they sent at least 1500 men out there out of the 2000 that were stationed in the garrison, meaning that us guards have to pick up the pace for all of the men that were sent out of town."

"Damn, better be getting payed double for this."

*Snort!* "What makes you think we are?"

"Then why are we here then?"

"Do you really want to question our orders in the face of our new lord of this town?" The guard raised a brow at that question where his fellow guard winced uncomfortably and then grumbled in response as he stayed quiet on the matter.

Not a few moments later, one of the guards was looking outside of the glare and into the distance. Unsurprisingly it was pitching black out there, he couldn't see a thing. He couldn't even see half a mile down the road of any traffic.

Suddenly, he felt something rumble, rumbling that was coming from the ground and not the sky. "Shh! Do you hear that?"

"…Probably just the storm." One of the guards shrugged in response.

"No… I can hear something out there."

"…Now that you mention it, I can definitely hear something." The fellow guard said as he stood up and looked out of the gate of where he heard the noise come from.

It was no until the sky lit up with a flash of lightening did it lit up the horizon for a brief second did he spot the unmistakable forms of a mass cavalry charge that was escorting a convoy of wagons and their special deliveries.

The guard's eyes widened in shock and alarm and turned around to face his colleagues "Enemy attack! Raise the alarm and shut the gates no-"he tried to finish his sentence until he got silenced by a knife slitting his throat. What he came face to face with was a hooded man with a six inch blade drenched in his blood that had sliced open his throat with just a quick slash before he slowly collapsed on his knees he then witnessed that all of his mate that were on guard duty were also in the same position as they too had been dealt with, they didn't want to be discovered yet, so they had to eliminate anyone that were to be troublesome but some were kept alive but muffled. The hooded man then just prodded him as he collapsed onto the wet floor with a splash.

The hooded attacker looked out towards the gateway and waved towards the oncoming convoy. Two men and a woman on horseback approached the hooded man.

These units were the newest of their Master's personnel of elite espionage, assassination and sabotage units. They were recognised form their distinctive armours, cloaks and hoods yet they all differed from one another but all served the same purpose, to Allows one to stalk their prey unannounced, by the cover of night as they were dressed in a Pitch-black Hunter's attire and armour **(Bloodborne: Hunter's armour** ).

"You're late!" the hooded man spoke.

"The Weather was a bitch to get through and the Traffic was bad, had to deal with them first." The leading male Personnel explained in his cold gravelly voice behind a black facemask.

"What traffic?"

"We bumped into one of the search parties that were camping near the road that led into town… they were in the way." He simply spoke as if getting rid of a mere pest.

"None escaped?" the hooded man asked of them, to which they replied with a shake of the head as a 'No'

"Did you bring everything that the Boss requested?"

"Yes, everything is accounted for." He nodded over to the wagons and the artillery pieces that were being towed behind the horses. Artillery pieces such as Hotchkiss 2 pounder 45mm and the 9 cm Kanone C/73 90mm breech loaded artillery pieces that were capable of using a modernised metallic canister like shells based upon the research of modern cartridges that was done on the Ak-47s 7.62×39mm round.

The hooded ranger nodded. "All artillery pieces are accounted for… And what of the weapons and the other ordnances and special projects that were ordered to be sent to the designated spot?"

"The weapons are here as promised" The ranger was then led to one of the wagons where a crate was being unloaded as one of the personnel pried it open with a crowbar. Inside the crates were the new and improved weapons, Martini Henry service rifles with detachable bayonets. In another crate were the new revolvers, Lever Action rifles, Bolt action rifles, and Sticks of TNT shoved into a waterproof satchel bag as well as another form of explosive that can be described as an early form of grenade but with a stick inserted into the black ball with fins sticking out of the ends like a rocket ball toy, The Ketchum grenade.

"The other support and special projects were sent elsewhere…The Boss says he has it covered."

The ranger nodded as he also accounted for the ammunition, Artillery shells and many supplies that they will need for their operation. Another wagon arrived, this time carrying multiple personnel that were heavily armed. And more cavalry personnel arrived on horseback wearing waterproof hooded cloaks.

The Hunter nodded and addressed the leaders of the Assault team of 400 personnel arriving at the North Gate. "You've been given your orders by the boss, you know what do?"

They all nodded. "Once you've finished with your task, head on over to your secondary objective where the Boss will be currently at. You have your orders, now move out!"

They all nodded and he turned to his personnel and called for the charge ahead further into town towards their objective. The hooves of the heavy cavalry thundered down the road, the curious townspeople stayed within the safety of their own homes but were peering out of their doors and windows. Anxious at the sight of soldiers invading their town, yet they never attacked a single person in their sight, nor did they run them over.

In the direction the cavalry were going, their intended target would be Nellis MCcoy and his trading company. While the infantry personnel on foot were heading in a different direction as they had scores to settle for the Boss.

* * *

Inside the town's garrison that mainly houses the guardsmen, several guards that were meant to be on duty were having a quiet night in around a table gambling their income away.

"Did you hear, two grunts from our division just got flogged to death a few hours ago."

"Shit, really? Whatever the fuck for?"

"Fucking with one of the pure maiden wenches that were promised to the new lord of Hearth, I shit you not" the guard who betted high, snorted. "Raise ya, 500 Sterling"

"Bollocks, I'm out." one of the guards cursed as he through his cards down as he lost his nerve.

"Same here, shit hand."

"Che, bunch of pansies." Another guard sneered as he eyed his hand and on the cards on the table. He smirked as he suddenly pushed forward all of his money forward to snare a few suckers in. "All in."

"Oh, you prick…fold" and now there was one left.

They both had a stare down until his opponent just calmly flipped his cards around to show that he won a Royal flush.

"Fuck!" he slammed his hand down in fury to reveal he had quad aces.

"Ohh!~ Unlucky, son… maybe next time" his opponent chuckled, but was genuinely impressed by his hand.

"Fuck… if we weren't such good mates, I would've called you out for cheating me."

"Hah, look who's talking!" his opponent laughed as they both shared a good laugh.

But the shared moment of banter was soon interrupted as the door soon opened to let in a cold draft of wind. The guardsmen all cursed and shivered at the cold and wet draft that blasted through the doorway. Cards were blown everywhere that only served to annoy and aggravate the guardsmen who were playing.

"Hey! Shut the door, you Idiot!" one of them with his back facing the door turned to face the idiot who opened the door all the way, only to pause in his rant when they saw a dark shadow figure wearing a dark attire with a cape hooked around his shoulders and a withered hat and a black facemask disguising his face **(Bloodborne: Hunter Armour set)**.

"What the-?" the guardsman was about to drawl out the word until the dark hunter whipped out a sawn off shotgun from within his coat that took him by surprise as the Hunter blasted both of the Shotgun's barrels into the man's face off as chunks of the guardsman's skull scattered all over the place and even hitting his friends and colleague as the guardsman was launched onto the table, collapsing it from underneath him. The Hunter then grabbed a small satchel bag from his side and snatched out a ring that was attached to a thread before tugging off the thread with a pinging sound and threw it inside the room and ran out before closing the door behind him just before they could get a moment to recover from their shock and retaliate.

 ***BOOM!***

The resulting explosion took out nearly a quarter of the living quarters and the room where the bomb had been thrown that interrupted the cards game being played. One survivor had managed to stand up on his own two feet, but was barely conscious and staggering all over the place. The wind that and rain was now making its own entry into the damaged garrison where the hole was situated.

The guard staggered over to the hole, unaware of what he was doing as he couldn't hear or feel a thing that was going on with his body, nor could he feel the blood pooling down the left side of his face and the fact that his left arm was missing.

As soon as he stepped one foot out of the hole in the wall and the semi collapsed ceiling and roof above it, he looked up and was soon face to face with the same person who had threw the bomb inside of the room who had placed his gloved hand upon his shoulder, only this time he was joined with several others who wore similar if not the same outfits but with different alterations to them.

A brief moment of a flash of lightning, followed by thunder lit up the area that made him wince as he looked directly into their cold, shadowy gazes. His hearing had just briefly returned only to hear them ask him a question.

"Captain Horace…is he in?" the stranger asked in a low gravelly voice.

The guard was still dazed and confused from the explosion, but he was able to comprehend the question being asked with a simple shake of the head. "Errrgh…he's…there…with McCoy…business…job" He murmured, addled out of his mind whilst pointing in the direction of McCoy's Trading Company.

"I see…thanks" the leading hunter nodded and then whipped out a cleaver like blade that snapped open into an extended version and cut his head clean off the body.

What shall we do here?" A female Hunter questioned.

"Clean up here, and then we'll go and re-join the others." The leader clarified before the rest of the Hunters complied before they all went to work as they all withdrew their twin black revolvers with knife bayonets extending outwards from underneath the barrels of the guns that were attached underneath and then rushed the building with such speed and grace that was befitting of a lethal Hunter.

For but a brief few moments, nobody outside of the garrison could hear them scream over the sound of the raging storm, nor could anybody hear from the chaos that was erupting inside of the town.

Guards were soon picked off left and right, not a word had been sent to warn the others or any notable people, not the captain, not the lord of the town nor any of the other nobles who were currently in town.

* * *

While the garrison was being seized, elsewhere there were several more platoons circling around the streets either on foot or on horseback, armed with the latest weaponry and uniform and armour for the night assault on the town. Pitch black hooded coats that were more akin to Wild West Duster or trench coats for the wind and rain, black face masks to hide their faces (Not like it was necessary) and reinforced brigandine vests with steel plates fitted inside of the pouches that protects their torso, back and their sides . Their weapons were updated to suit the demand of a faster pace of combat that involves gun slinging, shooting on horseback or shooting long distances accurately whilst always prepared for CQC combat.

Zachary had only planned on using force if there was no other choice, if either of the four likeliest people were to attack him directly or force his hand, then he will give the word for the rest of his hidden assault force to siege the town itself, giving orders to strong-arm the town away from the Noble's hold and into his welcoming arms.

Two platoons were sent to encircle he city, crushing any sings of resistance along the way, whether it be a wandering guardsman on foot with a spear plunged through his chest cavity and then being dragged along for the ride and then thrown off into an empty market stool.

Another platoon was sent to do the same as the others, but they were sent down the middle through town, down the main central road to seize the town square in the middle of the town whilst they made their way up to seize the upper class districts and the trading company and wrestle it out of McCoy's control. And lastly, the final Platoon would link up with their leader's platoon and assault the Livingston Estate located on the outskirts of town.

Under the cover of darkness and the raging storm, it turned out that facing the elements were more of a challenge than expecting any signs of resistance from the town's militiamen. The wind and the rain kept their enemies indoors whilst Zachary's personnel went to work on the town's capture.

What little resistance they did find, they were sorely disappointed. The Town's guardsmen were but little more than poorly trained National Guardsmen and/or Territorial Army reservists, instead they were but a hastily trained militia force rushed through training with a weapon and armour thrown on them and shoved into the field where their masters pointed at them where to go with little direction, instruction or motivation.

They were not loyal, nor were they inspired to join out of some sense of duty, ambition or pride in their country or their lords or some other patriotic reason, but was mainly out of necessity and desperation. For what other reason is there would a poor man join the town's guardsmen serving under their lord or Reconquista's own military force?

The answer to that was Money, a paying job to at least put money in their own pockets to survive or to feed their own families that were in desperate need, or maybe some other selfish reason.

Zachary knew about this as he had been informed about the poor morale and discipline that infested their ranks. He knew that if they were to see a well organised and coordinated task force, pointing advanced weapons at them and demanding for their surrender, a majority of them will do it in a heartbeat. However, there will still be some cases where some would perform their job quite adequately and engage them as what their duties demand of them, but there was nothing he could do about that as it would be on them to find out how badly outclassed they were.

With most of the garrisoned soldiers that were the Livingston's own private forces sent out to find the perpetrator's in the late Count Livingston's brutal murder. The remaining forces were merely scraped together commoners with barely any training to hold the town under any siege, even if they were aware of it or prepared for it or not.

The only threats worth noting were the local aristocrats that were encountered along the way, they were easily recognisable form their frivolous, gaudy and expensive outfits that were akin to 16th / 17th century English Tudor noble clothes. There were some incidents that occurred when a random squad of Personnel would run into them on the streets where they were either trying to get home or taking shelter from the rain.

After dealing with the Joke that had been the town's Guardsmen, they shifted their attention on hunting down mages and nobles that were suspected to be Reconquista dogs. They would first surround them, weapons raised and pointed directly at them in a threatening manner and order them by shouting at them to not move or do anything stupid.

Most of the nobles were in shock at the sheer audacity that they were being held at gunpoint, but they were more aghast by the way they were being addressed than the situation at hand. After spending many comfortable years in blissful ignorance, even more so under Reconquista's rule, they were simply unaware of such hostility that was being harboured against them.

Whilst they were still in shock or were about to splutter out their undignified offence, demands or even insults at them, they were quickly silenced when they were tackled to the ground and manhandled and restrained whilst they found themselves being bounded by tight constrictive rope. If anything that could be used as a weapon were to be found, magic or not, they would then be confiscated off of them and were then sent on their way to an undisclosed location, bound and gagged. If they were to be uncooperative or even continue resisting, they were given permission to rough them up a little and of course threaten them with harsher consequences if they were to continue being uncooperative.

There were of course some pockets of resistance with the noble mages where a small number of the nobles who were not stupid enough to be stupefied by commoners pointing firearms at them or were made aware of the ensuing siege that was happening all across the city just recently. Mostly it had been nobles who were offended and livid at the blatant disrespect that was present among the armed uniformed men and were drawing out their wands to punish the insolent commoners, whereas the more intelligent mages mainly reacted in self-defence towards the threat of uniformed and organised men moving about a town where they were clearly armed and dangerous looking to be causing trouble.

The ones who resisted were met with the same fates where their reasons being were that they all thought that after a small display of magic with a dramatic effect an flare that would've cowed them enough into submission like it would've always worked every time with any other plebeian to send them running or beg for mercy, maybe even kill a commoner or two just to teach them some manners and a lesson for acting against their betters.

However, they were simply made unaware of the fact that these were no mere commoners who were fazed by their presences nor did they fear them for their titles and names as well as their superiority in their magic. Depending on the circumstances, some mages were lucky enough to cast a magic spell and catch a few of them off guard and even managing to severely wound some of them or maybe even kill one or a few, but most mages were not quick enough to draw their wand and speak the magic chants or gather enough willpower fast enough by the time the personnel had already lined up their shots and mercilessly gunned them down. Few cases were reported where the personnel spared a few by disarming them of their weapon by shooting at their hand or wounding them in other non-lethal areas so that they wouldn't try and resist further or try and escape or maybe even grovelling pathetically at their feet.

The siege of Hearth wouldn't really be called a battle at all or even considered as one. The only battles worth noting were the siege of McCoy's trading Headquarters and the Livingston's estate.

* * *

 **(McCoy's Trading Company)**

"What do you mean you've come up with nothing!? I've paid you enough money to search for anything we can use against them and you dare show your face hear with nothing!?"Nellis McCoy spluttered in fury.

"If you'd let me finish then I'll explain why it's now out of my hands." Horace could only roll his eyes.

McCoy scoffed before he demanded for him to explain.

"You heard those bells, right?"

"Yes, what of it!?" McCoy nodded.

"I've heard rumours that the old mad preacher had encountered this Crowshaw just outside of his Church's doors. Predictably, he immediately hated him right there and then, probably offended him somehow…I don't know." Horace explained.

McCoy's eyes had widened in alarm as he came to realise something. "Damn him! He's gone and ordered a purge upon him!"

"Isn't that a good thing? He's doing you a favour, right?"

"Wrong! That maniac, Timms, will destroy everything that is related to him. When he orders a purge, he'll stop at nothing until every trace of his victim is erased from this town. That means I will never get my hands on those exquisite goods of his nor his contracts!" McCoy ranted as he further whined about how much he had lost during the day and how much they had humiliated him.

Horace on the other hand didn't care in the slightest. Like any other typical thug, he was only interested in getting paid. "Right~?…so, about the payment?" he said as he held his hand out expectantly.

Nellis glared at him for his dismissal of the topic and for his cheek in asking for his payment. "I'm not paying you a fucking copper until you get me what I want!" Nellis smacked his hand away.

Horace however glared right back. "That's not what we agreed upon, you cheat!"

"How dare you! I am a respectable business man as well as a Baron! I outrank you, you devious cur! And I will not be told off by some upstart pleb who came from the shit and mud in some backwater farmhouse from Brimir knows where! If it weren't for the fact that you've still got uses, I'd have gotten rid of you a long time ago, so don't push your luck with me!"

Horace would've spat out more insults towards his boss but he had to hold in his tongue as he didn't want to push his luck, especially with how intolerant Nobles are.

Horace was about to hear another earful of the Manager's complaints until they heard a loud bang that shook the entire room.

"Wh-What was that!?" Nellis panicked as he gripped onto his desk. "Horace, go investigate!"

Horace did so without complaint and rushed out the door that was McCoys office.

When he left the office and down the corridor that led down to the main foyer, he suddenly froze when he began hearing more loud noises such as multiple gunshots, shouts and screaming.

 ***Bang!***

"Everybody on the floor, now!"

"Do not try anything stupid and for fuck's sake don't try and act the hero."

Horace scrunched up his brow and rushed forward to see what the commotion was as he reaches the first floor banister that was overlooking the main foyer and what he saw had surprised him. Multiple armed men had stormed the building where all of them were heavily armed and dressed in black apparels that hid them well in dark shadowed areas, especially in the night and during this storm.

He looked over the area and spotted several private guardsmen under Nellis's employ were on the floor surrendered or shot dead. They didn't stand a chance as they were up against firearms, ones that looked rather odd. Too short to be a normal musket or a pistol, but clearly this was some sort of advanced contraption that allowed it to shoot more rounds before reloading. There were only a few who had surrendered before them. Horace saw this as a smart move as he saw what happened to one dumb move from a guard who attempted to shove a dagger into the boot of one nearby enemy, only to get a round in the head that burst his head like a glass bottle filled with water. McCoy however would've seen this as cowardice and demanded for him to fight back anyways to protect his investments and company with his life.

Whatever this was, he had to get back to the room and inform his boss of what was occurring as he had just been spotted by one of the hooded personnel who ordered for him to stop right where he was before shooting a round just above his head as he made a dash for it.

He reached the Manager's office safely where Nellis was currently inside waiting for him anxiously as he stood by a bookcase, currently fiddling with some books in the bookcase whilst mumbling something.

He turned to Horace with a semi panicked expression that made Horace inwardly revel in his dismay. "Well!?" he ordered for an explanation.

"I haven't a fucking clue on what's happening down there, but I think you've got a heist on your hands, and I can tell that's it's not the Royalists." Horace explained with a neutral look on his face, hiding the fact that he was getting increasingly anxious and he knew that they would be closing in on him pretty fast.

Nellis gritted his teeth "If it's not them, then who!?" upset about the fact that his company had been hit by some random upstarts. Who dared to make an enemy of him.

"I suspect that it could be that Crowshaw character you've been raving on about, as I can tell that there weren't any mages down there, only commoners with these strange muskets. It seems you've pissed him off somehow" Horace explained.

"Him!?" McCoy choked in shock and horror at the revelation "It can't be, how did they beat my guards!? Some of them were mages!" he said as gritted his teeth in humiliation as he came to realise that Zachary Crowshaw was a threat that he never saw coming and underestimated

"From what I've seen, they had these firearms that can shoot more than once. It's not magic as it looked rather new and more advanced than any musket I've seen." Horace explained and described the look of the weapons he saw.

Nellis would've argued against that logic but he had finally cracked through the bookcase as he unlocked a secret passage for him to escape through the bookcase after he activated the right rune.

Horace sighed in relief as he was slightly grateful that his boss had been prepared in setting up a secret escape passage that would lead out of the building.

"Oh, thank Brimir you have an escape route." He was then cut off as Nellis had rushed inside of the bookcase and closed it behind him with a click and a clunk, the door was locked and with him locked out

Horace blinked once, twice, thrice…. And then his face morphed into a great panic and rage as he rushed over to the book case and tried to force it open, but with his own strength the bookcase refused to budge as he discovered that the Bookcase was reinforced with magic runes. "Oi! Nellis! NGH! Come on, this isn't funny! Open the fucking door!" he roared as ripped off a book shelf and stumbled backwards.

He roared as he chucked the bookshelf at the desk that smashed through his magic desk lamp "You cowardly bastard, McCoy! I'll kill you! I'll fucking find you and gut you if they don't find you first, you fat greasy haired cuntbag! You'll rue the day when you crossed me! If it weren't for me doing your dirty work then you and your trading company would've been nothing! You owe me!" he roared as he banged on the bookcase with his heavy fist.

He was then cut off when the doors were suddenly kicked open and a squad of armed soldier's swarmed into the room, weapons raised and ordering for his surrender.

Horace was almost tempted to fight back as all he had to do was reach for his pistol from it's holster and shoot, but he wasn't a complete idiot as he knew he was outnumbered and outgunned, but he didn't want to die nor surrender to some unknown upstarts

He thought long and hard before he spat out a curse and threw his hand up in the air and fell to his knees and surrendered himself.

One of the Personnel stepped forward, a soldier who was a little bit taller than him and more heavily muscled than what he had going on. His stoic but steely gaze bore right through him as his hand gripped onto his jaw with a surprising amount of strength in his grip.

"Where is he? Nellis McCoy?" he asked in some weird deep accent he had never heard of.

Horace winced at his grip that held his skull firmly like a vice, but he answered honestly anyways as his loyalty to the bastard that abandoned him didn't matter anymore as his contract was now null and void. "Che!...You just missed him…slippery fat bastard had an escape route set up through his bookcase there... You won't be able to get through as its reinforced with magic and can only be activated through his magic" he answered.

The black garbed soldier looked up at the bookcase and back to Horace before he nodded towards several squad mates who approached him with a sack before another hit him clean in the face with a rifle butt, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

A company of soldiers were currently marching on their way to storm the house on the hill while the operation was currently underway to seize of the town from Reconquista's hold, so far no alarm had been set off which was good and the enemy as none the wiser. There was no natural light in this town so they wouldn't be able to notice all of the chaos happening, maybe some, but not during this storm.

Zachary's forces were all on horseback along the way there, all of his trusted personnel that joined him in previous conflicts were with him. Weapons updated and fully loaded and armours equipped for the upcoming conflict.

Zachary was currently on a hill overlooking all of Hearth as he was waiting for the signal from each platoon. The first two platoons signalled him via lanterns, using Morse code on the gate towers in the north, south, east and west. The whole town had been successfully cut off, nobody gets in or out as he ordered them to seal off the whole town and hold their positions on each gate.

The other two platoons he had sent to assault the Garrison and the Trade Company were well underway as their signal was the controlled explosions used to breach the buildings and capture or eliminate their targets.

Misaki noticed that everything was in place and ready to go as she turned to face her Master on her horse. "Everything is ready, Master…Shall we proceed?" Misaki said as she pulled out a flare gun and prepared it for firing.

Zachary was silent at first as he turned his head in the direction of the Livingston estate, a brief flash of lightning lit up the sky that revealed it's entire structure in the distance. "Tell the artillery crews they are clear to proceed… tell everyone to prepare for the Creeping Barrage" Zachary ordered as Misaki nodded and fired the flare in the air.

As soon as the flare had been fired, all eyes turned towards the town and the forests nearby.

Then…the forests and the town soon lit up in a fantastic light display of muzzle flashes that roared louder than the storm that boomed above their heads. The night sky soon lit up in a fantastic light show as white streaks soared through the sky above the town as multiple artillery shells flew overhead and towards their designated targets.

Every person in the town peered out of their windows, doors and their homes and gazed up at the sky in bewilderment, shock and rising anxiousness as they heard the harsh whistling of the shells flying overhead. They winced again as they heard the cannon fires that had quickly reloaded their shots, far quicker than to what they were used to.

Zachary watched the light show before summoning his Kalashnikov assault rifle and held it by his side. "As soon as the bombardment is over, we will storm the house! Find the lord of the manor and take him alive or dead. Spare those who are unable to fight or have surrendered, but take out any who resist!" Zachary called out over the harsh whistling of the artillery shells as they had already reached their targets and bombarded the front garden and the gate and fence surrounding the house, creating a huge gap for them to cross through. The gardens would then be the next one to be eviscerated by artillery fire as plants, garden furniture and trees were blasted apart. Guards were sent in a panic as they were caught right in the middle of it and they had no cover.

As the barrage then began to press on forwards towards the house where a few stray rounds would diverge off course and hit the house until the barrage finally stopped just in front of the Manor house, sparing its complete total destruction.

It was through the following silence when the artillery fire ceased before he gave the order as he raised his assault up above his head. "GO!" He called out to his troops that have now been gathered up in the hundreds. His personnel all roared in unison, their battle cry loud and furious as it could be heard in the town nearby and in the Estate up ahead.

Zachary grinned maliciously as he kicked the sides of his horse and took off in a mad dash towards the estate with his rifle pointed forward as he gave the command to charge as he led the cavalry charge forwards whilst the infantry followed up from behind. Their pace was swift and their voices loud. Their firearms were hot and their blades sharp.

It was time to end this.

* * *

 **(Present)**

Douglas had finally recovered enough to at least stand on two legs, albeit he stumbled after a few shaky step forward to prop himself up on the wall to overlook the entire courtyard and the Estate gardens

He noticed that the wind and rain had eased up, but that involved another problem as a shroud of smoke covered the entire area, blocking his view of the front gates and the town in the distance. Douglas was shocked as he took in the entire destruction of the entire Livingston Property. Hundreds of holes and craters had been dug up from the barrage, many bodies lay in them and scattered all over the place, most of them being the guards and hired mages hired under the count's pay who were ordered to patrol the estate on orders by the young Count where he had also ordered for double the amount of guards to protect his life as he feared that his father's murderers may come for him next. Judging by the screaming and paranoid ramblings the young count was making in his room as he changed into his untested battle armour, he certainly believes it to be the case.

As the young heir came marching out of his room in his armour, an expensive set of armour made that looked as if it was forged from pure silver and a long silver wand sword obviously too large and tall for him to use in enclosed spaces.

He tried to at least put on a brave face, but Douglass can tell that this boy looked as if he would bolt it at the first signs of trouble.

"Where are the rest of my men!?" he demanded

"They're taking defensive positions inside the manor at the moment, we are fortifying our positions so in order to—"

"I never gave that order!

"No, but I—"

"Sir Douglas, the enemy is out there! I want all of you to go out there and fight the enemy!"

"But, my lord… We can't see anything out there! wouldn't it be better for them to come to us?"

"Don't you dare question my authority here!? This is my Home you're using here as your fort! I never gave you permission for that! Now get out there and kill those cunts!" he pointed out towards the field and the fog of war.

Sir Douglass was about to argue more but was then cut off when he heard the sound of rumbling. He looked down by the ruined windowsill and the vibrations were shaking up bits of rumble and the water droplets on the surfaces of the building and the glass windows.

"I'm afraid it's already too late for that." Douglas gulped in anticipation. "Spread out! Form up defensive positions!"

Christopher was inwardly panicking and pointed out his shaking hand towards the fog. "T-T-They're here! Sir Douglas, why are you waiting, they're right there!?"

"Be quiet, Boy!" Sir Douglas growled at the petulant boy. "This is war! I will not take orders from a boy with a silver spoon fed up his arse when it comes to war, that honour goes to your Mother."

"You dare to speak of her in my presence!?" He screeched.

Douglas was about to retort or smack the boy in the face until he heard terrified screaming and gunshot noises being heard through the fog ofwar, he could see the feint but brief flashes of muzzle fire through the dense mist and smoke. The guards and mages that managed to survive the bombardment were seen fleeing through the smoke in terror as they fled away from their enemy, only to be gunned down with their back turned. Most of them were pleading for help whilst others spouted out futilities and hopelessness.

Douglas saw all of this happening and was about to shout to all of the mages musketmen, crossbowmen and archers to hold their fire, but Christopher had other ideas.

"Fire!" he ordered and by his command only half obeyed his orders as magic spells hit the fleeing soldiers that were only retreating and thus mercilessly slaughtering the fleeing soldiers.

"What in Brimir's name are you doing, boy!?" he spat out as he glared at the malicious boy.

The boy noble only sneered "They dared to turn their back towards the enemy! Such cowardice is a shameful affront to myself and Reconquista!"

"So you just butcher your own men because you were offended!?" Douglas spat out incredulously

Christopher glared right back at the minor noble for his disrespect "I am the Count of these lands! My word is law and you will obey my every order!"

The old butler and former knight had finally had enough of him "NO! I will not be a part of this madness!" Sir Douglas refused and marched off.

"Sir Douglas! Get back here! Get back here and fight you damned coward!" The young heir screeched after Douglas, he got angrier when several of his own men had left with him. Before he could brand him and the rest of the deserters as a traitor and kill them for their disrespect and insubordination, he was interrupted when he heard one of his men call out.

"There, up the main road!" somebody had called out until his head suddenly burst where a splatter of blood and brain matter splattered against the boy's cheeks.

Count Christopher was in shock as he felt the bright red liquid pour down his fat cheeks as he looked out towards the window. Outside he saw hundreds of cavalry just storming up the main road leading up to his house. It was only a cavalry led by commoners, but… how were they killing his men so fast? Their muskets were firing more rounds than an ordinary one and their method of attack is suppressing their mages, preventing them from counter attacking.

He looked out the window he was cowering behind and out of the rest of them as he spotted the odd one out. A distinct characteristic and feature of who appears to be the leader of this rabble, one who wore full bandages around his head, albeit they were completely soaked and half tattered and scorched.

He suddenly felt a shiver of fear as If he spotted him from behind his hiding spot, his gaze already locked onto his target.

"There, in the centre! The one with the bandaged face, that's the leader! Kill him! Kill him!" he commanded for his men to target the leader.

His men tried to comply with his orders by trying to let off a shot, but with how fast and furious with the way they attacked. They only managed to fire off a few shots of magi spells like fireballs, icicles, rock spikes and boulders and wind blades that manged to catch and unhorse a few of a the riders as well as a few arrows, crossbow bolts and musket rounds. The worst weapon they had was the one that was spitting out hot lead at a ridiculous rate of fire that was being wielded by the leader of the charge as it decimated through many of his men and smashed through layers of wall that was their cover.

But the shock and awe of the attack was too fast for them to keep track of as the leader soon ordered for the cavalry to split and two parties were formed that split down the middle, flanking both sides of the manor house.

"They're flanking us, get men on both sides of the house this instant!" Christopher shouted out in panic as he realised that most of the men were gathered at the front of his house and they could easily get in from the back and the sides of the building.

"My lord, there's a second wave incoming!" some of the men called out but they were surprised when they began to hear loud unfamiliar noises

"Wha…What is that thing!?" another soldier called out in panic

Christopher was about to demand for order and a report on the situation until he saw what all the commotion was all about. In the fog of war, he saw several bright light beaming through the blanket of smoke and mist like some sort of spirit.

 ***Whistle!***

A high pitched scream could be heard as great big lumbering steel beasts crawled through the scarred field, it's mechanical parts grinding, rattling and clattering as the machine bellowed out hot steam from their armoured cabins and funnels and bright lights spewing out from it's face as the thing moved along at moderate pace. The front of the metal beast like horse was covered in a layer of sheet metal, protecting it from frontal attacks whilst it safely pulled along its armoured carriages filled with personnel and what looks to be artillery pieces on a turntable.

Christopher had grown pale white when he was in disbelief and bafflement as to who could make or summon these great big lumbering beats. He ordered for his mages to slow them down or kill them, but to of little effect.

The weaker fire spells that were shot from low rate mage only seemed to singe it's armour while some of the more stronger mages were lucky enough to partially melt or destroy it's hull with a more higher concentrated spell with a bit more explosive power in it or even lucky enough to disable or destroy one of them as steam burst out from the open gaps of its hull before exploding. The water and ice spell proved to be rather ineffective as they would only dampen the surface or even shatter against the armoured hull, whereas some would get lucky or smarter to enhance and harden the lances of ice with more magic to at least pierce through the hull before launching it at a faster speed. The Earth spells had more luck in tacking out a few and even upturn a few of them with a well-placed boulder throw or a ground spike impaling through the beasts belly.

But the metal horses still spooked then noble lord as these peasants were responsible for making these giant steam machines…where they were really called the Traction Engine in another world. They were large, robust and powerful, but at the same time they were heavy, slow, and difficult to manoeuvre. In modern Earth terminology, they were essentially large steam tractors. Nevertheless they were responsible for the changes they brought to agriculture and road haulage at a time when the only alternative prime mover was the draught horse, but Zachary Crowshaw's intentions for it was for a tool of war first, then industrialisation.

They were immovable most of the time and were the ones who were the most furious in their assault as they pulled along their payloads of artillery and support weapons such as Gatling gun turrets in the driver and passenger cabin and their passengers in the carriages in the rear as they were pulled along. Other support weapons included a Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon firing a 37mm cartridge round and Hotchkiss 2 pounder 45mm and the 9 cm Kanone C/73 90mm breech loaded artillery pieces fixed on top of the giant steam powered tractors and on carriages with turntables fixed upon them as they fired upon the house.

What Zachary had just made was the 19th century's version of an APC and an IFV. As the Traction engines reached the house at a decent enough distant, 12 of the troop transport carriages' rear doors soon dropped down and out marched 50+ infantry personnel per carriage all carrying Henry Martini rifles and Gwewher 1871 bolt action rifles and crossbows loaded with an explosive Ketchum grenade as the projectiles.

Christopher could've only thought that maybe this time fortune had been smiling on him as only 600 men had all but gathered for the slaughter, but was sorely mistaken when he saw the distance they were firing at and he performance of said weapons were way beyond any musket weapons he knew of as they all picked off his men one by one in a hail of gunfire on the first volley fire and then in just two seconds they were ready to fire again as they loaded in a fresh round.

Some of the assault personnel got to fire off the Ketchum grenades from their modified crossbows that acts as a early form of grenade launcher right at the enemy that were cowering behind the walls of the manor house. The blasts were ripping out holes of the wall by the blast, but it was not as powerful as Dynamite or a 20th century hand grenade.

As his men were slowly getting pinned down and overwhelmed by heavy gun fire from the support guns, the artillery pieces and the swarms of enemy infantry. Christopher had finally lost it as a small artillery shell blasted through a wall and the shrapnel had pierced through the throat of one of his officers that was standing next to him. the dead eye stare that bore into him as he turned around with blood pouring out of his mouth made him drench his breeches in warm yellow piss.

"HIII!" he squealed in terror as he ran down the corridor fleeing from the fight , and ran deeper into his home leaving his men abandoned and in disbelief and horror as they stared at the back of their fleeing commander. The sound minded men that stayed to fight, snorted in disgust as they knew that the green boy noble had no place on the battlefield, his prestige only granted or given to him by his father, and his daddy wasn't here to save him now. They soon realised that they should've joined Sir Douglas when they had the chance to because they were not sure if they would survive the night with the onslaught that as happening right upon their doorstep.

* * *

Christopher ran all the way down the soon empty corridor of the first floor as he tried ot find the panic room that was built into his bedroom, but he soon cursed to himself for their being only one and for it to be so far away in this blasted house. Curse the previous family who designed this place before his father took from them.

He then stopped and paused as he heard a loud rumble that echoed through the building and it's walls. He gulped as he soon realised and then remembered the flanking party that circled around the building. They were already inside quicker than he expected whilst the majority of his men were focused on the front. He knew he had to hurry up if he wanted to escape capture.

He reached one of the main stairwells and foyers that led to the ground, 1st and 2nd floors, but he soon encountered what he feared for when he first spotted him.

The leader and his company of personnel had already breached the building and seized most of the ground floor before reaching the main foyer before blasting a couple f his guards that were holding their position in the foyer with lead from an odd looking musket weapon that looked crude yet deadly that was made of wood and metal with a drum secured underneath it.

 ***RATATATATA!***

He was the stunned as it bellowed out a horrifically harsh explosion of fast consecutive shots that were impossible to achieve in any standard modern muskets in his era. The rate of fire and the stopping power just shredded through his men like wet paper, their armour proven useless as it broke apart like brittle wood that shattered into multiple pieces.

The ringleader of said party that stormed into his home seemed to be getting a kick from using the terrifying weapon as well as mad as he let off a huge burst into the glass chandelier with a golden frame above. His adrenaline fuelling his anger as he just open fired upon the chandelier that shattered many glass lights and crystal decorations, after many shots later one stray bullet hit thee chain that carried the whole thing and it shattered upon the ground as soon as it crashed, sending thousands of shards upon the floor.

"Livingston!" he roared out. "Come on out! it's over!"

Christopher had been cowering behind the banister on the first floor as he tried ot shuffle away before he stepped on a creaky floorboard that alerted the whole party including the leader down below towards his presence. When they looked up and spotted the new lord of the manor, the leader, garbed in a black intimidating coat and armour as well as ammo belts wrapped around his person and half of his scarred burned face revealed with parts of his singed bandages just draping down his shoulder was staring right at him… which certainly made for a scary sight when it is this man who was hunting after him with a powerful army at his beck and call.

"Hello there~!" he could just see his malicious grin as if he was pleased to see him.

"Y-You!" he pointed at him as he stumbled down and lifted himself up onto the banister. "Wha-What do you want with me!?"

He tilted his head in response "Isn't it obvious?…I want you gone." He aid as if it's the most obvious answer in the world. "Don't you see? You've lost… there is nothing here for you now and hearth will soon be better off without you once it's rid of you."

Christopher tried to put on a brave face as he pointed his fat meaty finger at him "Hearth…Hearth is mine by right! I inherited this town after my father's passing! It belongs to me to do whatever I want with it! You have no right in taking what's rightfully mine!" he screeched.

Crowshaw scoffed "Do you think I give a fuck about what rights you have? That line of thought is not going to help you here, as I ended that said line of thought when I massacred your men and shot up the Father with 50 bullets in his chest and a bullet to his head and ousted McCoy from this town as I seized his corrupted trading company for myself. Your time is coming to an end sooner than expected, Livingston. The time for some new fucking management has come at last!" Zachary announced as he cocked his weapon by its side with a metallic ping after he inserted a new magazine. "And now the people demand justice for all of the atrocities that happened upon them and the inevitable change will soon be in effect…and I shall grant them just that." Zachary promised as he and his group marched up towards the stairs up towards him.

Christopher panicked and drew out his wand was about to launch a fireball at this cur, but a raven haired woman who stood close to him was faster as she swiftly drew out a silver revolver and fired a round that shattered the wand into splinters.

Christopher cried out in shock as he gripped onto his hand as the bullet skimmed past his fingertips.

"Is that what it's all about? You invaded my town, my home… just for some lowlife peasants!? Those miserable little degenerates are nothing, why are you doing it for them!? Instead, you could work for me! I-I-I'll pay you handsomely, whatever you want? You'll get nothing from the peasants, so what'll it be? Gold, land, titles, or what about women? A-Anything you want I'll grant it, just please spare me my life form this madness…Please!?" he begged as he shuffled backwards.

"Begging won't do you any good, pig. Your money, noble authority and titles will not save you this time" Zac shook his head as he reached the top floor on the staircase and was a few meters away in approaching him. "Now shut up and get over here, boy. Your punishment is long overdue." He growled out through his tattered bandages as he slowly drew out a serrated combat knife out of it's scabbard.

Christopher realised that he had no way of fighting as he just remembered that he dropped his wand sword when he fled from his defensive position earlier, so he did the only thing he could do in his positon…he ran…but not very far.

As soon as he ran not but five meters around a corner that lead to the back of the manor house and towards his master bedroom, a long steel pike suddenly lunged out of the shadows and plunged into his portly belly. He was soon in shock as he looked down and gripped onto the long shaft that was embedded into his fat torso. He looked up to see who had dared to murder a noble so cowardly from the shadows, only to see something more shocking than a commoner raiding his home.

A slim but scarred woman in rags of what appears to be a night gown shuffled from out of the shadows. She looked slightly malnourished, but was strong enough to heft up a mighty pike with one arm as her left arm appears to have been dismembered recently where the sleeve was tied into knot around the stump of the arm to stop the bleeding. Her bloody silvery locks of hair were a dishevelled and bloody mess that covered the majority of her face. Her lone eye that peered out from a small gap of her fringe showed her cold bloodthirsty rage and hatred she felt for the boy that tormented her so cruelly.

But the last word that Zachary heard Christopher utter out in shock with the pike stabbed into his stomach was one he had not expected as he reached the first floor bannister.

"Mother?" he whimpered out in shock and pain. He said as he held out his hand for her, not because of regret or for a small slither of love he still felt for her…but because he begged her for mercy as he didn't want to die… he was a noble… he was too important to die.

Unfortunately for him, his pleas fell on death ears as her grip only turned the tip of the pike in his wound and with great strength she hoisted her son in the air in an acute angle as she seethed out her response. " **I HAVE NO SON!"** she hissed out callously as she threw her son through the banister, shattering it, sending him straight down to the ground floor and crashing face first through onto hard solid floor covered in thousands of broken glass and crystal shards along with the pike pushed straight through his torso, his face now mangled beyond recognition before he coughed ad spluttered out his last breath as his face was littered with glass shards sticking through every inch of his face.

Zachary stared on apathetically as he witnessed both mother and son having a heart to heart talk before she discarded her son like wiping scum off her boot for good.

Zachary then turned to observe this strange woman who had murdered her son in cold blood that he suspected may have been for revenge as he eyed her cautiously as did the rest of his personnel that trained their weapons on her.

She then noticed them as she turned to stare at these strangers with a stone cold but weary gaze, not even bothered by her state of dress that barely upholding her decency as the rags were threatening to slip off her shoulders that would almost reveal her DD cup or higher breasts in their entirety, but he wasn't focusing on them at the moment as this lady's killing intent was through the roof.

"Who are you people? What are you doing in my home?" she demanded of them.

Zachary blinked, but answered honestly. "beSieging it, can't you tell by the distant explosions and gunshots?"

The woman only stared blankly a she listened to all the chaos that was happening throughout the estate for but a few moments before she answered. "Is that so?…Hn…So you're his enemy that he was rambling on about?" he pointed towards her deceased son as she assessed him with an observant and calculative gaze.

"Yeah, that's right…and by an extent…so are you" he pointed out."

"So it would seem." She drew out a breath and the atmosphere in the room grew tense and silent as Zac's instincts were going all erratic at the threat that this woman posed. After a brief tense moment of silence, she came forth with her answer. "Well then…I surrender." She raised her only arm up into the air with a blank aloof face that displayed little emotion with no intention to fight.

Zac and his Personnel gawked as they could've sworn that things were about to have gone quiet messy, but were proven wrong. "Erm…Okay…Why?" Zac drawled out and the silver haired lady spoke out her answer.

"I wish to surrender myself to you, but in exchange for my surrender… I request for your aid in the fight against Reconquista!" she said seriously after recalling his words when she heard him just before the moment of Christopher's demise.

Zachary's only response with a raised but singed and burnt off brow was… "…Huh?"

And then gets distracted by his notification's box that was blinking in the corner of his vision. He had completely forgot about it as he thought that notifications were just annoying distractions most of the time, but he had it turned off throughout the whole day battle.

'Hm, I wonder what's this about?' he clicked on the notifications icon and the… a few seconds later his vison exploded as the HUD had just been flooded by past notifications in the last several hours.

 **Mission complete!**

 **[Northern Thunder]**

 **Primary Objectives:**

Siege the Town of Hearth and capture it for yourself (Complete)

Capture or kill Count Christopher Livingston (Dead)

Capture or kill Father Timms (Dead)

Capture or kill Captain Horace (Captured Alive)

Capture or kill Baron Nellis McCoy (Escaped)

 **Bonus objectives:**

Capture the town without setting off the alarm [Intel Division Reward: Civilian structure upgrade – [Hideouts]

Capture the Livingston manor without suffering 50% damage [Central HQ Command Reward: FOB Command Centre]

Suffer less than 15% casualties to the town's populace (6%) [Medical Division Reward: Medical civilian Clinic and Heal ability]

Capture Captain Horace live – [Combat/Security Division reward: Police station]

Save the mob – Release the Mob from their corruption [Reward: Support ability [Cure] & perk [Lifegiver]

Capture McCoy's Trade company – Reward: Perk and Merchant Upgrade [Master Trader]

 **New structures are now available to build! [Close]**

Train station (Manage your railway here)

Train depot (Builds steam locomotives)

Airfield (Builds Airships)

Motor pool (Builds vehicle based units such as automobiles)

Police station (Civilian only – Trains Marshal, Sheriff, Police officer, police detective)

Medical clinic (Civilian only - Trains Doctors and nurses)

Safe houses/Hideouts (Civilian building Upgrade only)

 **New units are now available to train at the command centre! [Open]**

 **New Research options are now available! [Open]**

 **You have gained a legendary unit! [Close]**

S rank!

Kirov Command Airship + S rank crew (Requires Airfield) (AN: Command and Conquer Red Alert

 **You have gained a new Ally**

SS rank!

Margaret Silverstone (The Fire Fist)

Square class fire mage

Albionian Aristocrat (Former Duchess)

Age 52 (Looks 30ish)

 **You have levelled up X8!**

Level 35

 **Health points** – 325/650(-50% Health)

 _ **Mana points**_ – 1500/1500 MP

 **Stats** :

 **Strength** \- 33

 **Vitality** \- 40

 **Dexterity** \- 37

 **Intelligence** \- 41

 **Wisdom** \- 38

 **Luck** – 19

 **Available Stat points 45**

 **You have been Promoted!**

 **Your rank is now: Colonel**

 **Infantry Personnel – 1200 (1 regiment): You can assign any different roles to any of the summoned personnel judging by their current rankings or specialised rankings when training for a specific role in different combat/specialised logistical and other roles in your military force or base.**

 **Ordnance/Artillery – 410**

 **Vehicles – 330**

 **Aircraft – 180**

 **Warships/Boats – 50**

 **REP Gained/ Infamy gained!**

 **Reconquista: -410/1000 REP (Hated) (You have gravelly slighted Reconquista and will thus plot against you for your actions.)**

 **Albion Royal Family: +110/1000 (Liked and respected.) (You have done a noble effort and a considerable favour by liberating a town under the oppressive tyranny of Reconquista. This faction may seek you out if you plan on assisting them further if they feel if you and they have similar interests, but watch out for snakes in the grass.**

 **Your summoning tech cap has increased!**

 **You are now able to summon tech and Arms before and during the year "1900"**

 **You have liberated a town!**

 **This town is now under your command**

 **Hearth**

 **Headquarters –** Livingston/Silverstone Estate

 **Population –** 45,000 (Estimate)

 **Military Garrison:**

79/2000 personnel

20 Artillery Ordnance

28 combat mages

 **Aerial support:**

None

 **Military status:**

Poor

 **Navy Status:**

N/A

 **Stronghold/Palace status:** Moderate damage

 **City status:** Poor, but improving

 **Common people's mood:** Upset, angry, bitter, anxious, grateful, scared

 **Aristocracy mood:** Outraged, confused, nervous

 **Would you like to manage your town?**

Y/N

Zac could only blink as he sweat dropped at the amount of notifications he missed out and the new features that were being presented to him as he tried to discreetly dismiss them and read them later whilst in front of this rather terrifying, dishevelled, tortured and starving woman who wore a blood-soaked nightgown.

He quickly turned off the HUD and the notifications and made a plan to read them for later, but first he needed to address this issue.

"You…Want to join us?" he pointed sceptically at her, feeling puzzled as to why a noble would want to join them and a duchess at that, former or not.

"Well… I wouldn't say join up as I hardly know you. Although, it's more like I wish to ascertain that Hearth is safe before owing my allegiance to its conquerors." She said aloofly and with a shrug.

"Ok, that I can understand… but I just can't picture as to why you'd want to work with us? You do realise that I'm not a mage"

"Believe me, if I was your age then I'd be questioning myself over it constantly, the thought of allying myself with commoners like we're equals and all that bullshit, but I'm not a fool to not see potential when I see it." she scoffed before she gestured for him to follow. "Come. We'll discuss this more after I had something to eat as I can't stand the feeling of having a body that's slightly all skin and bones, spending months in that little shit's dungeon will do that to you." She said bluntly.

"Oh, would you mind if we prepare the meal for you? You do look like you really need it."

"Sure, as long as it's the best damn meal I've ever had then I'm okay with you preparing my meal…well, to be honest I don't really care what I eat as long as I get fed." She shrugged before walking off to find the dining room before Zac and his bodyguards followed straight after to discuss their partnership in more detail.

/

 **AN: I think i'll see to Commander of Zero next as that started off quite well for a first chapter.**

 **I know i said that most Naruto fics are generic, but i can't help but appreciate that someone has done a new familiar of zero fic with Naruto in it that actually looks promising** (The Vulpine Familiar of Zero) **, but this fic follows the canon mostly.**

 **The foundations is loosely following canon but it's almost entirely AU. strange thing is that i always felt more comfortable doing AUs than following Canon to the letter of every detail.**

 **Another fic that i wish to try out, a crossover between One Piece and Fallout New Vegas with the courier as a StrawHat...that's a tricky one.**

 **And as i have said previously in my last update...updates will be random at best, it could take longer or shorter than the last so don't hold your breath for it to come more frequently as i have been quite bus as well as being occupied with Red Dead Redemption II (Good Game)**

 **And as always... leave a suggestion for anything related to new tech ideas and units.**


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